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STATESMEN 



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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT SERIES 



TRAVELLERS AND EXPLORERS. By 
General A. W. Greei.v, U.S.A. 

STATESMEN. V.y Noah Hnooks. 

MEN (^F BUSINESS, V.y W. O. Stodijakd. 

INVENTORS. By P. O. Hi uekt, Jr. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
(Krom a rare pliutograph taken November 15, 1863. Now engraved for the first time.) 



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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT ,-^- 'l. 



STATESMEN 



/ 

NOAH BROOKS 



.S^ 



OT 



"OCT 3 l8iJ3 



OF WASV\\^ 



.H^/ 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1893 






CorvKiGHT, iSq3, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



TROW DIRECTORY 
AND BOOKBINDING COMP 
NEW YORK 



In the preparation of this work the author's 
aim has been to present a series of character 
sketches of the eminent persons selected for por- 
traiture. These selections of subjects have been 
made for the purpose of placing before the pres- 
ent generation of Americans salient points in 
the careers of public men, whose attainments in 
statesmanship were the result of their own indi- 
vidual exertions and force of character rather 
than of fortunate circumstances. Therefore, 
these brief studies are not biographies. The au- 
thor had the good fortune of personal acquaint- 
ance with most of the statesmen of the latter 
part of the peri(^d illustrated b}' his pen ; and he 
considers it an advantage to his readers that they 
may thus receive from him some of the impres- 
sions which these conspicuous personages made 
upon the mental vision of those who heard and 
saw them while they were living examples of 
nobility of aim and success of achievement in 
American statesmanship. 



CONTENTS 



I. Henry Clay, . 
II. Daniel Webster, 

III. John C. Calhoun, . 

IV. Thomas H. Benton, 
V. William H. Seward 

VI. Salmon P. Chase, 

VII. Abraham Lincoln, 

VIII. Charles Sumner, 

IX. Samuel J. Tilden, 

X. James G. Blaine, 

XI. James A. Garfield, 

XII. Grover Cleveland, 



9 
39 

69 

91 
119 

H3 
175 
223 

255 
281 

313 
333 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FULL-PAGE 



Abraham Lincoln, 
Henry Clay, 
Daniel Wkbstkr, 
John C. Calhoun, 
Thomas II. Benton, . 
William H. Seward, 
Salmon Portland Chase, 
The Statue ok Sumner, by Ti 

Lie Garden, Boston, . 
Samuel J. Tilden, 
James G. Blaine, 
James A. Garfield, . 
President Grover Clevelan'd, 



[Frontispie 



DMAS Ball, in 



Pub 



FACING 
PAGE 

9 
39 
69 

91 
119 

143 

223 

255 
281 

313 
333 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 

The House in which Henry Clay was Born, 

The Schoolhouse of the Slashes, 

Henry Clay between Thirty and Forty, . 

Clay's Tomb at Lexington, Ky., .... 

Henry Clay's Bed, used by him for Fifty Years, 

House where Webster was Born at Salisbury (now 

F'ranklin), N. H., 

Webster when a Young Man, .... 
Webster in Fishing Costume, .... 

Webster's Home at Makshfield, Mass., 
The Wei'.ster St.^tue in Central Park, New York, 



PAGE 
12 

15 
19 
36 

37 

40 

43 

46 

53 

58 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



I'AGE 

Webster's Tomb at Marshfiei.d, 68 



Calhoun in Early Life, 70 

Calhoun's Home at Fort Hill, S. C, . . . . 73 

Calhoun's Library and Office, 84 

Joining of the Central and Union Pacific, . . 96 
The Sub-Treasury Building in Wall Street, New 

York City, 105 

The Benton Statue at St. Louis, . . . -115 

Mr. Seward in Early Life, 127 

Mr. Seward's Home at Auburn, N. Y., . . . 130 

The Garden at Auburn, 133 

The Seward Statue, by Randolph Rogers, in Mad- 
ison Square, New York, 139 

The House in which Mr. Chase was Born, at Cor- 
nish, N. H., 146 

The Chase Home at Keene, N. H. — Monadnock in 

the Background, 149 

Edgewood House, Mr. Chase's Residence at Wash- 
ington, D. C, 160 

Mr. Chase's Desk in the Library at Edgewood House, 169 
The Negro-Pew. [An Actual View], . . . .171 

Lincoln's Approved Likeness, 176 

Lincoln's Early Home at Elizabetiitown, Kv., . 181 

Lincoln's Wrestling-bout with Armstrong, . . 190 

The Home of Lincoln at Springfield, III., . . 195 
The St. Gauden's Statue of Lincoln at Lincoln 

Park, Chicago 202 

Stephen A. Douglas, 206 

Gideon Welles, 208 

The National Lincoln Monument at Springfield, III., 211 
House where Lincoln Died in Washington — 516 

Tenth Street, N. W., 218 

Death-mask of Lincoln, 221 

The Bust of Sumner in the Museum of Art, Bos- 
ton, BY his Friend, Thomas Crawford, . . 228 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



TAGE 

Charles Sumner, 237 

The Boston Home ok Mr. Sumner, at 20 Hancock 

Street, ......... 243 

The Rendition of Anthony Burns, .... 248 

Sumner's Tomb in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, near Bos- 
ton, 253 

The TiLDEN Homestead, where Mr. Tildex was 

Born, at New Lebanon, N. Y., .... 260 
Mr. Tilden's New York House, at No. 15 Gramekcy 

Park, 265 

Mr. Tu.den's Library in the Gramercy Park House, 270 
Greystone, Mr. Th^den's Country Pi..\ce, near Yonk- 

ERs, N. Y., 275 

Bryant Park, Fifth Avenue and Forty -second 
Street, New York, and the Suggested Tilden 

Library, 279 

The BHiTHrL.\CE of Mr. Blaine at ^YEST Browns- 
ville, Pa., 2S5 

Mr. Blaine at Thirty Years of Age, .... 288 
\YnERE Mr. Blaine went to School at West Browns- 
ville, Pa., 291 

Mr. Blaine's Home at Augusta, Me., .... 298 
Mr. Blaine's Washington Home, at 17 Madison Place, 
WHERE HE Died. — Formerly the Seward Man- 
sion, 3°7 

Garfield's Boyhood Ht)ME, 316 

The Garfield Monument at W.ashington, . . . 319 
The Home of Garfield at Mentor, O., . . . 323 

General Garfield in 1863 3^4 

The Garfield Monument at Cleveland, O., . . 328 
The House in which President Cleveland was Born, 

AT Caldwell, N. J., 33^ 

Gray Gables, Mr. Cleveland's Summer Home at 

Buzzard's Bay, .....•• 342 
"The Weeds," The Clevklands' Home ai' Holland 

P.viENT, N. Y., 345 




Henry Clay. 



STATESMEN 



HENRY CLAY. 

When Abraham Lincoln was forty-three years 
old, that is to say in 1852, he was invited by the 
citizens of Springfield, 111., to deliver a eulogy 
on Henry Clay, who had just died. Among 
other things, Lincoln said of the man whom 
he had idolized through life : " His example 
teaches us that one can scarcely be so poor 
but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient 
education to get through the world respectably." 
In this regard Clay and Lincoln were not much 
unlike. Both were born into a lot of poverty ; 
both rose to high distinction in the State. It 
may be said, however, that the poverty of Lin- 
coln's boyhood was more abject and his lot 
harder than Clay's. 

Henry Clay was early known as the Mill Boy 
ol the Slashes. In later years, when lie was a 
candidate for the Presidency this title was the 
slogan of a hot political canvass and was thought 
to be worth to Clay a great man}- votes. His 
mother was a widow living in a low and swampy 
district of Virofinia known as the Slashes. As a 



10 STATESMEN 

lad, Henry was often sent to Daricott's mill, on 
the Pamiinkcy River, riding on horseback, with 
corn to be ground or meal to be brought home 
for the family of seven boys and girls. The 
neighborhood along the route of the boy's fre- 
quent travel knew the future statesman as the 
Mill Bo)^ of the Slashes. 

There is a tradition that when Mrs. Clay, who 
was left a widow in 1781, in the thick of the war 
of the Revolution, when Henry was four 3'ears 
old, was surprised one day by a visit from Gen- 
eral Tarleton on one of his raids through V^ir- 
ginia. He threw on the table a handful of gold 
and silver in payment for property taken by his 
men, and it is told of the widow, that as soon as 
Tarleton had gone, she high-spiritedly swept up 
the coin and threw it into the fire. She might 
better have kept the money, for the family were 
very poor. 

Many years afterward, at a Fourth of July 
dinner at Campbell Court House, Va., one Rob- 
ert Hughes gave this toast: "Henry Clay: he 
and I were born close to the Slashes of old Han- 
over ; he worked barefoot, and so did I ; he 
went to mill, and so did I ; he was good to his 
mother, and so was I. I know him like a book 
and love him like a brother." And a year 
earlier than this, at a dinner at Lexington, Ky., 
in honor of him by his old friends and neigh- 
bors, Clay saitl : "In looking back uj)on my 
origin and progress through lite I have great 
reason to be thankful. Mv lather died in 1781, 
leaving me an intant of too tender years to re- 



HENRY CLAY 11 

tain any recollection of his smiles or endear- 
ments. M}' surviving parent removed to this 
State in 1792, leaving me, a boy of fifteen vears 
of age, in the office of the High Court of Chan- 
cery in the city of Richmond, without guardian, 
without pecuniary means of support, to steer my 
course as 1 might or could. A neglected edu- 
cation was improved by my own irregular exer- 
tions without the benefit of systematic instruc- 
tion. I studied law, principally in the office of a 
lamented friend, the late Governor Brooke, then 
Attorney-General of Virginia, and also under 
the auspices of the venerable and lamented 
Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had acted as 
amanuensis. I obtained a license to practice 
the profession from the judges of the Court of 
Appeals of Virginia and established myself in 
Lexington in 1797, without patrons, without the 
favor or countenance of the great or opulent, 
without the means of pa3-ing my weekly board, 
and in the midst of a bar uncommonly distin- 
guished by eminent members. I remember how 
comfortable I thought I should be if I could 
make one hundred pounds, Virginia money, per 
year, and with what delight I received the first 
fifteen shillings fee. My hopes were more than 
realized. I immediately rushed into a success- 
ful and lucrative practice." 

What were the achievements of this poor Mill 
Boy of the Slashes ? He was elected to the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Kentucky Legislature in- 
1803, appointed to the United States Senate to 
fill a vacancy in that same year ; again elected 



12 



STATESMEN 



to the Assembly and chosen Speaker of the 
House in 1807 ! again sent to the United States 
Senate to fill an unexpired term in 1809; elected 
to the House of Representatives of the United 
States in 181 1, and five times chosen Speaker of 
the House ; United States Peace Commissioner 
to Ghent in 1814; re-elected to Congress the 
next year ; retired from public life for a brief 




The House in which Henry Clay was Born. 



period to retrieve his f(M-tunes ; returned to the 
Senate in 1823 ; Secretary of State under John 
Quincy Adams; again in the Senate in 1831 ; re- 
elected to the Senate in 1836 ; resigned his seat 
in 1842; nominated for the Presidency in 1839 
and 1844, and re-elected to the Senate in 1849 
and 1855. This was ihc career that opened be- 
fore the lad who rode to mill from the Slashes 
and acquired the elements of a common-school 
education in a log school-house near his birth- 
place. 

His mother married a second time, and his 



HENRY CLAY 13 

stepfather, Captain Henry Watkins, a resident 
of Richmond, started him in life in a retail store 
in the city of Richmond, but within a year his 
bookish habits, his divine thirst for knowledge, 
and his astonishing facility for acquiring almost 
every variety of information so aroused the 
admiration of the stepfather that the lad was 
found a place in the ofBce of the clerk of the 
High Court of Chancer}'. Here was where he 
made his first real beginning in public life. He 
was tall, raw-boned, and lank, with a countenance 
pleasing but not handsome ; and he was clad in 
garments of homespun which did not improve 
his personal appearance in the eyes of the town 
lads among whom he took his place at a desk 
where he began copying papers. 

Later on, when he left Richmond to seek his 
fortune in Kentucky, then the Far West of the 
country, Clay did not make his way into condi- 
tions of very high civilization. Kentucky was 
still known as the " Dark and Bloody Ground " 
of Daniel Boone and the wild aborigines whom 
he fought ; and although the city of Lexington 
was a centre of social enlightenment for those 
days and in those regions, it was, as compared 
with Richmond, a crude and unkempt com- 
munity. Some years later, in 1814, Amos Ken- 
dall, who had migrated from New England to 
Kentucky in search of profitable employment, 
wrote in his diary : " 1 have, I think, learned the 
way to be popular in Kentucky, but do not as 
yet put in it practice. Drink whiskey and talk 
k)ud with the fullest confidence and vou will 



14 STATESMEN 

hardly fail of being called a clever fellow." 
But through all these early and boisterous 
scenes of Clay's life we find him reading — per- 
petually reading. As he, himself, has said, he 
lacked that scholarly discipline and system of 
acquiring knowledge which is essential to the 
best mental training ; but he absorbed knowl- 
edge with great avidity and certainly did make 
the most of his opportunities. Through life, 
hc^weyer, Henry Clay appears to have been 
somewhat superficial, and those who have stud- 
ied his character and have noted how great were 
his attainments, and with what skill his genius 
seized upon such stores of learning as he had, 
must needs regret that so great a mind could not 
have been more thoroughly trained and better 
equipped for the great duties which Henry Clay 
in his lifetime undertook. His appeared to be a 
mental disposition of intuitions and instincts. 
He felt rather than knew ; he divined men's 
thoughts and purposes, and his great eloquence 
was always directed to their imaginations, their 
prejudices, and their passions, rather than to 
their understanding. 

As a jury lawyer he was always eminently 
successful. His eloquence, especially in his 
early life in Kentucky, was regarded as some- 
thing phenomenal, and it is said of him that no 
malefactor who had him for a defender was ever 
convicted. His presence was commanding, his 
figure tall, graceful, and distinguished. His ges- 
tures were large and sweeping, and his maiuier 
of address was broad and free. His voice was 



HENRY CLAY 15 

melodious, with a prodii^ious range, sinking into 
the lowest basso-profundo or rising in shrill and 
aliiKJst feminine notes. The music of his voice 
is represented as being something wonderful. 
Most of his early practice was in the criminal 




■Jl 



.^^••^"' 



■]^I''M 



The School-house of the Slashes. 



courts of Kentucky, and the most remarkable of 
these cases was one in which Clay was engaged 
to defend a Mrs. Phelps, wife of a respectable 
farmer, who was accused of the crime of murder, 
having killed her sister-in-law, Miss Phelps, with 
a musket, which in a moment of passion she 
seized and fired, aiming at her victim's head. It 
was impossible to deny that Mrs. Phelps had 



10 STATEXMI'lN' 

"killed Miss Phelps, but the criminal was a wom- 
an of a respectable family, the wife of a respect- 
able man, and never bef(jre accused of any fault. 
Clay's theory was that the deed had been com- 
mitted in a moment of " temporary delirium," 
and on that plea the jur}', whose judgment had 
been confused by the extraordinary plea of the 
advocate, found that the woman was not sane 
enough to be hanged, but was insane enough to 
be kept in jail for a short time. This is proba- 
bly the first instance of " temporar}- insanity " 
being used in the criminal courts of the United 
States to secure the acquittal of an undoubted 
murderer. In another case, that of one Willis, 
of Fayette County, accused of a murder of pe- 
culiar atrocity, Clay succeeded in dividing the 
jury so that they could not agree, and the de- 
fendant escaped conviction. At the second trial 
of Willis, Clay argued that his client had once 
been put in peril for his life and under the con- 
stitution of the State could not be placed in 
jeopardy a second time. This being new doc- 
trine to the Court, Clay was forbidden to proceed 
on that line of argument, whereupon the young 
lawyer solemnly gathered up his papers and 
stalked out of the room, throwing upon the 
Court in grave tones the responsibility of deny- 
ing his just rights to a man on trial for his life. 
The Court, astounded by this unexpected turn of 
affairs, sent a messenger after Clay, who gra- 
ciously returned and secured from the jury a 
verdict of not guilty. Years afterward, the cul- 
prit whom Clay had defended so successfully. 



HENRY CLAY 17 

met his C(>iinsel, bein<^ intoxicated, and cried, 
" Here comes Mr. Clay, who saved my life." 
"Ah, Willis, poor fellow," said Clay, *' I fear 1 
have saved too nian\- like \()u who ought to be 
hanged." 

Clay excelled in sarcasm of finei" touch than 
those who were his compeers in Kentucky were 
accustomed to employ. On one occasion, when 
confronted in the House of Representatives by a 
General Smyth, of Virginia, in a long debate, 
Smyth, who was noted for his prosy and long- 
drawn speeches, said to Clay, " You speak for 
the present generation ; I speak for posterity." 
" Yes," replied Clay, " and you seem resolved to 
continue speaking until your audience arrives." 
In one of his speeches, giving a graphic descrip- 
tion of the arrival in Washington of a horde of 
office-seekers on the advent of Andrew Jackson 
to power, he said : " Recall to your recollection 
the 4th of March, 1829, when the lank, lean, 
famished forms from fen and forests and the four 
quarters of the Union gathered together in the 
halls of patronage, or, stealing by evening's twi- 
light into the apartment of the President's 
mansion, cried out, with ghastly faces and in 
sepulchral tones, ' Give us bread, give us Treas- 
ury pap, give us our reward.' England's bard 
was mistaken. Ghosts will sometimes come, 
called or uncalled." 

Clay's popularity was very great. Even now 
it is a tradition throughout the Southwest, and 
living men, tottering on the verge of the grave, 
recall his eloquence, his delightful and winning 



18 STATESMEN 

presence, his gracious ways and his orreat polit- 
ical disa})})ointmcnts, with feelings ol mingled 
grief and enthusiasm. I lis atiiuence of phrase, 
his resonance of language and magnificence of 
gesture gave him a power over the minds of 
men that probably has never been equalled by 
any American of any time. His noble and 
generous heart, his sympathetic nature, and his 
exuberant vitality made him everywhere a wel- 
come guest and an idolized friend and political 
leader. When he was defeated for the Presi- 
dency by James K. Polk, in 1844, the grief of his 
followers was so great that in th(^se portions of 
the country where his vote was strongest one 
would have supposed a great national calamity 
had settled upon the people. Abraham Lincoln 
was one of those who idolized Clay, and he never 
forgot the profound sorrow that overwhelmed 
him when, to their utter amazement, he and his 
neighbors learned that Henry Clay was defeated 
for the Presidency. 

Such was the turbulence of Clay's political 
career that those who are old enough to recall 
even the traditions of his memorable contests in- 
variably remember two grave charges that were 
freely bandied during his political campaigns. 
He was held np to public execration, especially 
in the North, as a duellist and a gambler. His first 
experience in the duello was provoked by the 
insulting conduct of Colonel Joseph Hamilton 
Daviess, one of the magnates of Kentucky, who 
was then District Attorney of the United States. 
In the course of a suit in which Clay defended a 




Henry Clay between Thirty and Forty. 
(Engraved by D. Nichols, from a miniauire in possession of John M. Clay, Esq. 



20 ,s7Vl TE><Mh:y 

man who had provokctl tlie wratli of Daviess, 
Clay was notified by Daviess that he had better 
desist Ironi his defence. Cla\- }»i"()niptl\- leplied 
that he woidd permit no one to dictate to him as 
to tiie i)erformance of his duty and that he "held 
himself responsible" after the manner of the 
code. Daviess sent Cla}- a challenge, which Clay 
promptlv accepted. The hostile parties had ar- 
rived on " the field of honor " when friends in- 
terfered and brought about an amicable settle- 
ment without bloodshed. A more serious affair 
was that with Humphrey Marshall, who de- 
nounced Clay's first efforts in favor of a protec- 
tive tariff as the " claptrap of a demagogue." A 
fierce altercation ensued, challenges were ex- 
changed, and the two men actually did meet on 
the field of battle and both combatants were 
slightly wounded before the seconds could inter- 
fere to prevent further mischief. But the most 
famous of Clay's altercations was that which 
grew out of one of his wordy encounters with 
Andrew Jackson. One Kremer had printed in 
a Washington paper a scandalous charge known 
as the " corrupt bargain," in which Clay was 
alleged to have consented to throw his influ- 
ence for John Ouincy Adams, candidate for 
President, for a consideration. Clay published 
a card in which he pronounced the author of the 
story, " whoever he mav be, a base and infamous 
calumniator, a dastard, a liar, and if he dare un- 
veil himself and avow his name I will hold him 
responsible, as I here admit myself to be, to all 
the laws which govern and regulate men of 



HENRY CLAY 21 

honor." No duel came out of this. Kremer was 
a ridiculous person, of whom Daniel Webster, 
writing to his brother Ezekiel, in New Hamp- 
shire, said : " Mr. Kremer is a man with whom 
one would think of having a shot about as soon 
as with your neighbor, Mr. Simeon Atkinson, 
whom he somewhat resembles." And Clay, 
eventually having been very much ashamed of 
threatening to challenge poor Kremer, subse- 
quently expressed his regret therefor in these 
words : " I owe it to the community to say that 
whatever I may have done, or by inevitable cir- 
cumstances might be forced to do, no man in it 
holds in deeper abhorrence than I do that per- 
nicious practice (of duelling). Condemned as it 
must be by the judgment and the philosophy, to 
say nothing of the religion, of every thinking 
man, it is an affair of feeling about which we 
cannot, although we should, reason." Never- 
theless Clay actually did later than this meet on 
the field of battle John Randolph, of Roanoke. 
During the celebrated debate on the Panama 
Congress, in Adams's administration, Randolph, 
with his usual boldness of vituperation, char- 
acterized the administration, which included 
Adams and Clay, as the " coalition of Blifil and 
Black Georofe — the combination unheard of until 
now of the Puritan with the blackleg." That 
Clay should fairly boil over with wrath when 
he heard this is not to be wondered at. He chal- 
lenged Randolph, and the two men met, ex- 
changed shots, and both missed. Randolph, it is 
said, was dressed in a loose flowing coat, and no 



22 STATESMEN 

one could say where in its voluminous folds 
Randolj^li's s[)are and attenuated bodv was dis- 
posed. A bullet touched the coat. At the second 
tire Cla^■'s l)idlet inflicted a woimd in the gar- 
ment, whereupon Randolph hred his pistol into 
the air and said, " I do not rtre at you, Mr. Clay," 
and then they sliook hands and were again 
friends. It should be remembered that all these 
things happened in the early part of the present 
century when "the code" ruled throughout the 
Southern and Western States and a hostile en- 
counter on the " field of honor " was a much less 
notable or eyen ridiculous affair than it woidd 
be in these later and more peacefid days. 

As I have just intimated, wdien the storms of 
slander whirled upon the head of this gallant 
" Harry of the West," the charge of gaming was 
one of the most effective weapons in the hands 
of those who endeavored to beat down the popu- 
larity of the gallant Kentuckian in the North- 
ern States. I remember to have seen, when a 
lad, a coarse wood-cut with which the New 
England States were flooded during the cam- 
paign of 1844, when Clay and Frelinghuysen 
were national candidates against Polk and Dal- 
las. Clay's alleged vices were held up to public 
execration in sharp contrast with the virtues of 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, who was an upright Christian 
gentleman. The cartoon represented Mr. Clay 
seated at a gambling-table surrounded by the 
implements of the trade, with bottles, decanters, 
and pistols in thick array about him. On the 
other side of a narrow [)artiti(Mi was a picture 



lIENIiY CLAY 23 

of Mr. Freling-huysen in gown and bands preach- 
ing' to the heathen. There were indeed no limits 
to the vulgarity, brutality, and libellousness of 
the charges that were heaped upon Mr. Clay's 
name. 

As of duelling, so of card-playing, it was then 
common throughout the countr}-, and gaming 
for high stakes was not regarded with disfavor, 
especially in the Southern and Southwestern 
States. Clay was addicted to pleasure and 
social amusements. After he had passed the 
severe apprenticeship of his studious boyhood, 
he seems to have emancipated himself and 
thrown himself into the enjoyments of life with 
a certain fierce fervor which follows a reaction 
from a hard and barren life. William Plumer, 
of New Hampshire, who was a member of the 
Senate when Clay first took his seat in that body 
in 1806, thus set down in his diary a ver}' fair 
estimate of the young Kentuckian's character: 
" Henry Clay is a man of pleasure, fond of 
amusements ; he is a great favorite with the 
ladies; he is in all parties of pleasure, out al- 
most every evening; reads but little — indeed, 
he said he meant this session should be a tour 
of pleasure. He is a man of talents, is eloquent, 
but not nice or accurate in his distinctions. He 
declaims more than he reasons. He is a gentle- 
manly and pleasant companion, a man of honor 
and integrity." As this tribute comes from a 
political opponent, we may be sure that it does 
not err on the side of liberality. 

In the diary of John Quincy Adams, written 



24 STATESMEN 

when he, Clay, Albert Gallatin, and others were 
Commissioners of the United States at Ghent, 
occur these words : " I dined again at the tabic 
(fhotc at one. The other gentlemen dined to- 
gether at four. They sit after dinner and drink 
bad wine and smoke cigars, which neither suits 
my habits nor my health, and absorbs time 
which I can ill spare. I find it impossible, even 
with the most rigid economy of time, to do half 
the writing that I ought." Adams was ten years 
older than Clay and was brought up in the 
ascetic and thin atmosphere of Boston ; and, 
with similarly implied censure on another day, 
he makes this entry: "Just before rising I heard 
Mr. Clay's company retiring from his chamber. 
I had left him with Mr. Russell, Mr. Bentzon, 
and Mr. Todd at cards. The}- parted as I was 
about to rise." On this, one of Henry Clay's 
biographers, Mr. Schurz, quietly remarks: "John 
Quincy Adams played cards too, but it was that 
solemn whist which he sometimes went through 
with the conscientious sense of performing a 
diplomatic duty." Tn another chapter of Mr. 
Adams's diary, Mr. Middleton, of South Carolina, 
is introduced as telling the story that Clay neg- 
lected to oppose a certain bill because " the 
last fortnight of the session Clay spent almost 
eyery night at the card-table, and one night 
Poindexter had won from him eight thousand 
dollars. This discomposed him to such a de- 
gree that he paid no attention to the business 
of the House the remainder of the session. Be- 
fore it closed, however, he had won back from 



HENRY OLAT 25 

Poindexter all that he had lost except about 
nine hundred dollars." One who knew Clay 
very well, Nathan Sargent, long time Commis- 
sioner of Customs, Washington, says: "When 
a candidate for the Presidency Mr. Clav was 
denounced as a gambler. He was no more a 
gambler than was almost every Southern and 
Southwestei'n gentleman of that day. Play was 
a passion with them ; it was a social enjoyment ; 
they loved its excitement and they played when- 
ever and wherever they met, not for the purpose 
of winning money from one another, which is 
the gambler's motive, but for the pleasure it 
gave them." I quote from Mr. Colton, who, in 
speaking on this point says : " Mr. Clay never 
visited a gambling-house in his life, and was 
never seen at a gaming-table set up for that pur- 
pose. In the early periods of his public career 
he played with his equals in society for the ex- 
citements of the game, but he never allowed a 
pack of cards to be in his own house, and no 
man ever saw one there. That he was once 
in the habit of yielding to the seductive passion 
is not more true than that he always con- 
demned the practice and for the most part 
abstained from it." If I have given much space 
to this often-repeated charge that Henrv Clay 
was a gambler, it mav be pleaded that to one 
who remembers the storm of obloqu\' which 
was hurled over Clay, and all who supported 
him, something shoidd be ]3ermitted by wav of 
explanation of the cause of that now historic 
commotion. 



2() STATESMAN 

Clay's first appearance in Congress must have 
been significant to the elderly men whcj held 
their seats in the dignified United States Senate. 
It does ncjt appear to have been noticed that this 
accomplished, self-poised, and confident young 
Kentuckian was not yet of legal age as a Sena- 
t(jr. As he was born April 12, 1777, and entered 
the Senate December 29, 1806, he still lacked 
three mc^nths and seventeen davs of the age of 
thirtv-three years, which the Constitution of the 
United States prescribes as a condition of eligi- 
bilitv to the Senate. His first beginnings in his 
career as a legislator were characteristic. It has 
always been the tradition of the Senate that a 
new member should hold his tongue for a year, 
except when answering to a roll-call or making 
some unimportant motion. Clay immediately 
plunged into the debates, as a matter (jf course. 
On the fourth day after he took his seat he of- 
fered resolutions concerning the circuit courts 
of the United States, and followed this up with 
simdry important public measures, one of which 
was an amendment to the Constitution concern- 
ing the judicial power of the United States. 
With utmost freedom he took part in all the de- 
bates and astonished the Senators with pungent 
sarcasms on men much older than himself. His 
first speech was in advocacy of a bill to bridge 
the Potomac River at Washington. Other bills 
were in the same line of that policy of " internal 
inii)r()vcmcnts " which was so ai'denth' sustained 
by Clay throughout his whole Congressional 
career. 



HENRY CLAY 27 

The young republic, still weak and exhausted 
from its long struggle for independence, was 
being harassed by all the first-rate European 
powers and occasionally nagged by some of the 
smaller ones. The British Government was par- 
ticularly offensive in its insistence on the right 
of search, and xVmerican grievances in this direc- 
tion so multiplied that within a very brief time 
over nine hundred ships were seized by the Brit- 
ish and five hundred and fifty by the French. 
American citizens were impressed as British 
seamen, and the insolence with which our remon- 
strances were treated exasperated the young 
Republican leaders, of whom Henry Clay was 
now the most dashing and brilliant. Madison, 
who was President, was a timid and vacillating 
old man. Henry Clay, now Speaker of the 
House, so arranged the important committees of 
that body as to put them under control of the 
party anxious and importunate for war with 
Great Britain. It is not too much to say that he 
fanned the (lames of rising indignation and was 
ready to proceed to any length to commit the 
United States to warlike purposes. He took the 
floor of the House to make speeches in favor of 
placing at the disposition of the President a 
large army. He spoke of war as a certain event, 
and pointed out that the " real cause of British 
aggression was not to distress an enemy, but to 
destroy a rival." When the question was asked, 
" What are we to gain by war ? " he replied with 
ringing emphasis : " What are we not to lose by 
peace ? — commerce, character, a nation's best 



2S STATESMEN 

treasure, honor." His voice sounded like a clar- 
ion call throughout the republic. Indignation 
meetings were held, resolutions adopted calling 
on Congress to take action, and denouncing 
Great Britain as an insolent tyrant whose pride 
must be lowered. Clay proposed an invasion of 
Canada, another siege of Quebec, and an ulti- 
mate peace dictated at Halifax. 

Clay's patriotism, always undoubted and pas- 
sionate, was now at fever heat. With his magnif- 
icently dramatic air, he cried : " It is impossible 
that this country should ever abandon the gal- 
lant tars who have won for us such splendid 
trophies. Let me suppose that the genius of 
Columbia should visit one of them in his op- 
pressor's prison and attempt to reconcile him to 
his forlorn and wretched condition. Should we 
say to him in the language ol tiie gentlemen on 
the other side, ' Great Britain intends vou no 
harm ; she did not meaii^to impress you, but one 
of her own subjects having taken you by mis- 
take, I will remonstrate and try to prevail upon 
her by peaceful means to release you. but 1 can- 
not, mv son, hght for you.' If he did not con- 
sider this mockerv, the poor tar would address 
hci- judgment and sa\- : ' ^'()u owe me, my coun- 
try, protection; 1 owe you in return obedience. 
I am not a British subject ; I am a native of 
Massachusetts, where live my aged father, my 
wife, m}' children. I have faithfully discharged 
my duty. Will ^()U ix'fuse to do\ours?' " The 
speech w as concluded with these burning words : 
" No matter what his vocation, whether he seeks 



JIEXKY CLAY 29 

subsistence amid the dangers of the sea or draws 
it from the bowels oi the earth, or from the hum- 
blest (occupations of mechanic life, wherever the 
sacred rights of an American freeman are as- 
sailed, all hearts ought to unite and everv arm 
be braced to vindicate his course. . . . But 
if we fail, let us fail like men ; lash ourselves to 
our gallant tars and expire together in one long- 
struggle, fighting for free trade and seamen's 
rights." There was no withstanding this appeal. 
The increase of the aim}- was voted by Con- 
gress and the war spirit rose with rekindled 
ardor. 

It is unnecessary to trace the history of the 
War ot 1812. After a succession of most brill- 
iant naval victories which shed great luster 
upon the American name, the cause of the re- 
public began to falter and men talked of peace. 
The dii)lomatic mission undertaken in the sum- 
mer ot 1 8 14 by Adams, Clay, Bayard, Russell, 
and Gallatin was to treat with the British Gov- 
ernment through its agents at Ghent. After a 
long and wordy engagement between the com- 
missioners • of Great Britain and the United 
States, the terms of peace were finallv agreed 
upon. Clay throughout these negotiations 
showed a certain intuitive knowledge of events 
that were occurring behind the scenes and 
which were utterly unknown to the world out- 
side until long afterward. As a fervid and high- 
spirited })atri()t, he was grcatlv disai)p()inted by 
the outcome ol the negotiations, and refused to 
go to London, where he expected to be still fur- 



30 STATESMEN 

ther humiliated. But when the news of the 
battle of New Orleans (which was fought after 
peace had been concluded) reached Europe, his 
crest arose once more with pride, and he said, 
" Now I can go to England without mortifica- 
tion." It is a curious incident in Clay's career 
that he should have been the most active inciter 
of the War of 1812 and yet be compelled, as he 
thought, to " eat humble pie " in order to con- 
clude peace at Ghent, the terms of which he 
thought were to be dictated at Halifax. On the 
whole, however, he was satisfied, and a year 
later, in a debate in the House of Representa- 
tives, he acknowledged large responsibility for 
the declaration of war, alluded to the fact that 
the republic had been insulted and outraged by 
Great Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, 
and even by the little contemptible power of Al- 
giers, and in answer to the question, " What have 
we gained by war?" he said: "Let any man 
look at the degraded condition of his country 
before the war, the scorn of the universe, the 
contempt of ourselves, and tell me if we have 
gained nothing by the war. What is our situa- 
tion now? Responsibility and character abroad, 
security and confidence at home." 

It was in January, 18 16, that Clay became in- 
volved in the long contest which grew out of 
the national bank project. He was liable to a 
charge of inconsistency, as he had once opposed 
the rechartering of the Bank of the United 
States, but was now in favor of that institution. 
His critics have said that, according to Clay's ar- 



HENRY CLAY 31 

guments, the bank was unconstitutional in 1811, 
but was constitutional in 18 16, owing tt) a change 
of circumstances. The conflict was long and ex- 
ceedingl}' acrimonious. Before it terminated, 
Clay was involved in a bitter contest with An- 
drew Jackson and with his successor to the 
Presidency, Martin Van Buren. With charac- 
teristic self-possession, Clay proposed a radical 
change in the payment of members of Congress. 
Their compensation was %6 a day for each dav's 
services. He introduced a bill to change it to 
$1,500 a year, the law to apply to the Congress 
then in session, which of course would involve 
back pay to members then in commission. This 
proposition provoked a storm of criticism, and 
Clay for a time suffered a temporary eclipse of 
his popularity. He was forced to take the stump 
in Kentucky and advocate, as was the custom of 
the times, his own re-election. In the canvass of 
that year(i8i6) Clay met in his district an old 
and once ardent political friend, a Kentucky 
hunter, who expressed his dissatisfaction with 
Clay's vote on the compensation bill. 

"Have you a good rifle, my friend?" asked 
Mr. Clay. 

"Yes." 

"Did it ever flash?" 

" It did once." 

"And did you throw it away?" 

" No ; I picked the flint, tried it again and it 
was true." 

" Have I ever flashed except this once you 
complain of?" 



32 STATESMEN 

"No." 

"Aiul will \oii lliiow iiR' a\\';i\--'" 

"No, no," said tlic hunter with much emotion, 
i;Taspin^' Clav's hand, "never; 1 will pick the 
Hint and try it again." 

l-ietui'ned to Con^'rcss and again chosen 
S[)eakei", Clay speedily lound himself in an em- 
barrassing position. He had been a candidate 
for the Presidential election in the preceding 
Noyember. It turned out that Jackson had nine- 
ty-nine electoral votes, Adams eightv-four, Craw- 
ford fortv-one, and Clay thirty-seven. No one 
having received a clear majority of all the votes 
cast, the election was thrown into the House 
of Representatiyes, of which Clay was Speaker. 
This was Clay's hrst great disappointment. He 
had hoped to be one of the three higher candi- 
dates on the list, which would have made him eli- 
gible to receive the vote of the House in the can- 
vass now about to open. Being the fourth in the 
list, he was ruled out; and now he was regai'ded 
as the I'resident-maker. His impulsi\e tempera- 
ment naturally felt the keenness of this great 
disai)j)ointment ; and he did not sustain his defeat 
with much composure or fortitude. The friends 
of each of the three leading candidates courted 
and flattered Clav, who was supi)osed to hold the 
l)alance of power. His predilections were early 
in fayor of John Quincy Adams. It is now a 
matter of record, although then unknown, that he 
had expressed his intention to throw his influ- 
ence for Adams long bclore an\- achances wei'e 
made to him b\' Jackson's triends. This, how- 



HENRY GLAY 33 

ever, was not revealed to the friends ol the otlier 
candidates. As soon as Clay's intentions became 
manifest, Jackson's friends charged upon Clay 
that he was a party to a corrupt bargain. This 
was the foundation of the celebrated " Bargain 
and Corruption" scandal which agitated the 
country for months and years thereafter. The 
assertion of the Jackson men was that Clay had 
agreed to support the candidacy of Adams on 
condition that he. Clay, should be made Secre- 
tary of State in the event of Adams's election. 
In those days the Secretary of State was usually 
regarded as the legitimate successor of the Pres- 
ident, in whose Cabinet he was first minister. 
Adams was elected and Clay became his Secre- 
tary of State, but in that place he was exceed- 
ingly uncomfortable, and although his motives 
in accepting the portfolio of the State Depart- 
ment were absolutely pure, his temperament did 
not fit him for the routine duties of the office 
and he pined for the turbulence and excitement 
of the House of Representatives, in which he had 
achieved his greatest triumphs as a statesman 
and politician. Returning speedily to the House, 
he threw himself with great enthusiasm and 
spirit into the discussion of burning questions 
then animating Congress. Of the more impor- 
tant matters that engaged his attention then 
and previously we should recall his defence of 
the Spanish-American republics, his so-called 
American svstem of a protective tariff, internal 
improvements (to which he was sincerely and 
uncompromisingly devoted), and finally, slavery 
3 



34 STA TESMEN 

and the compromise measures growiiii^ out of 
agitation of the slavery question during his long 
service in Congress. He was identified with 
many measures intended to compromise with 
the extreme and radical views of statesmen of 
both parties. Indeed, in his later years his best 
efforts were always directed to the adjustment 
of differences which seemed wellnigh impossible 
of settlement. He was the father of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, by which the extension of 
slavery north of the northern parallel of 36° 30' 
was prohibited, and also of the compromise of 
1850, the support of which was so fatal to the 
political fortunes of more than one Northern 
statesman. This disposition to compromise gave 
him the title of " The Great Pacificator." 

Through all this strenuous and exciting epoch 
in his public life, Clay never forgot the dis- 
tressed and the oppressed of other lands. His 
sympatliies went out not only to the Spanish- 
American republics, but to Greece in her 
struggle for independence, to Hungaiw, and 
even to the enslaved Africans of our own coun- 
try. He was well called " a Southern man with 
Northern principles." When reproached in a 
Northern State with being a slaveholder, he 
instantly offered to free his slaves if those who 
reproached him would undertake their main- 
tenance, and through all his life he was a con- 
sistent although possibly mistaken supporter of 
the project of colonizing free and emancipated 
colored persons in Africa. Up to the date of 
his death he was an ardent supporter of the 



HENRY CLAY 35 

American Colonization Society, and perpetually 
referred to it and its machinery as the most 
hopeful means for redeeming our country from 
the curse of slavery. 

The great disappointment of his life was his 
defeat in the Presidential election of 1844. There 
was reason to suppose that he would have car- 
ried the State of New York by a small majority, 
which would have given him the election, but 
the Liberty party, representing the abolition 
sentiment of the State, had now become suf- 
ficiently strong to assert itself and to divide 
the vote so that the State cast a majority of 
five thousand and eighty votes for James K. 
Polk. Clay was deeply mortified at his de- 
feat and complained that his friends had cru- 
elly deceived him. His prestige suffered, and 
his personal feelings were painfully wounded. 
There was no recovery from an overthrow so 
overwhelming as this, and his later years were 
doubtless clouded by gloomy views of the sin- 
cerity of human affection, the fallacy of human 
hopes, and the gratitude of the republic. He 
had said on one occasion that he had " rather 
be right than be President." Doubtless, he felt 
that he was right, and still he failed to reach 
the Presidency. Later, and while he was still 
smarting under the sting of what he believed to 
be undeserved disgrace, he spoke at Lexington, 
Ky., in favor of gradual emancipation. Among 
his audience was Abraham Lincoln, who had 
journeyed thither from Springfield to hear the 
great Whig leader whom he loved so well. 



36 



STA TEAMEN 




Clay's Tomb at Lexington, Ky. 



Lincoln was i^reallv disajjpoinlcd witli the 
speech, which was written out and read and 
lacked the s})ontaneity and hre which Lincoln 
had anticipated. At the 
close of the meeting, Lin- 
coln secured an introduc- 
tion to the great man and 
was invited to Ashland. 
The disappointment of the . 
speech was deepened by 
his intercourse with Clay. 
Long afterward he said of 
Clay that though he was 
polished in his manners, 
hospitable and kindly, he 
betrayed a certain con- 
sciousness of superiority and an almost offen- 
sive imperiousness. This deeply wounded the 
sensitive soul of Lincoln. Me felt that Clay 
did not regard him or any other person as his 
equal. This lesson added to Lincoln's experience 
of human nature and was referred to by him in 
after life as a disappointment almost as wound- 
ing as the defeat of Henry Clay for the Presi- 
dency. 

The examples of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster 
are often cited as proving that America's greatest 
statesmen do not reach the Presidency. In the 
public career of Clay were four sharp and pain- 
ful disappointments. As we have already seen, 
he was defeated in 1824, when Andrew Jackson 
was chosen bv the Mouse ot Representatives. 
Again, in 1840, he hoped to be nominated by the 



HENRY CLAY 



37 



Whig National Convention, but was distanced 
by General Williani IIenr\' Harrison. He was 
actually nominated, but defeated, in 1844, when 
Polk was elected. Finallv, in 1848, he expected 




Henry Clay's Bed, used by him for fifty years. 

to receive the nomination of his party convention 
at Baltimore, but was again disappointed. Gener- 
al Taylor, the hero of the Mexican war (a war to 
which Clay gave no countenance) being the 
nominee. At this point Clay's patience broke 
down and he refused to support the nomination 



38 STATESMEN 

before the people, choosini^ rather to sulk in his 
tent. 

Henry Cla}' died in Washington, June 29, 1852, 
in the seventy-sixth year of his age, preceding- 
Webster to the grave only five months. With 
lamentation and mourning that hlled all the land. 
the great leader was borne to his beloved Ken- 
tucky, where a magnificent monument reared by 
the hands of his admirers marks his last resting- 
place. 



M 




Daniel Wehster. 



II. 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

There are three scenes in the life of Daniel 
Webster which may be regarded as marking 
three stages in his long and wonderful career : 

1. His father's means were limited, and the 
narrow circumstances of the family seemed to 
restrict his boyish ambitions to the humblest 
walk (^f life ; but his father, without saying a 
word to the boy, had resolved that Daniel should 
have a college education ; and one day, riding 
in the farm wagon to the town where the lad 
was to be put under the tutorship of a compe- 
tent teacher, the father briefly, almost grimly, 
communicated his intentions to the bo v. Youn"f 
Daniel, overcome by the unexpected good fort- 
une opening before his eves, laid his face upon 
his father's shoulder and burst into tears. The 
homely homespun country lad saw before him 
the possibilities of a high career. 

2. In January, 1830, while he ^v'as a United 
States Senator from Massachusetts, it fell to his 
lot to defend his native New England from the 
attacks of a representative Southerner, General 
Hayne, of South Carolina, in the Senate. It was 
a momentous period in the history of the coun- 
try. That reply was made at the zenith of Web- 



40 



STATESMEN 



ster's life. It is the place of all others where he 
grandly stood forth as a parliamentary orator, a 
master of eloquence. The world even now turns 
and looks upon that historic scene with aw^e and 
admiration. At this point doubtless culminated 
the fame and the intellectual power of Daniel 
Webster. 




House where Webster was Born at Salisbury (now Franklin), N. H. 

3. In May, 1852, Webster, now past his man- 
ly prime, crippled by an untoward accident, 
stood on the grand rostrum of Faneuil Hall, in 
Boston, an entrance to which had been previ- 
ously denied him by the city authorities. He 
had not Icjng since lost a part of his great popu- 
larity in consequence of his course upon the 
slavery question, and many of his former friends 
had fallen away from him. Whittier had writ- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 41 

ten of him that sad, bitter rebuke contained in 
the poem entitled " Ichabod." Five months 
later the great Webster was laid to rest by the 
sea he loved so well. 

The condition of the country at the time of 
Webster's boyhood (he was born in 1782) was 
one of extreme poverty and bareness of the lux- 
uries of life. In one of his later addresses he 
said : " It did not happen to me, g-entlemen, to 
be born in a log cabin, but my elder brothers and 
sisters were born in a log cabin and raised amidst 
the snowdrifts of New Hampshire at "a period 
so early that when the smoke first rose from 
its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills 
there was no similar evidence of a white man's 
habitation between it and the settlements on the 
rivers of Canada." School facilities were few 
and far between, and sometimes it was necessary 
for the lad to follow the schoolmaster from ham- 
let to hamlet, boarding away from home, in order 
that he might secure the primitive education 
thus put within his reach. The hard and barren 
soil of New Hampshire did not yield rich re- 
turns to the farmers who struggled for a living 
in the region of the " frozen hills " of which he 
spoke. His school-days were days of privation, 
and yet he made great advances in acquiring 
knowledge, and was considered the quickest boy 
in school. His memory w^as astonishingly re- 
tentive, and he seemed to have considered that 
a book was not merely to be read, but to be 
committed to memory. He tells in his diary of 
his gaining the reward of a jackknife offered to 



42 STATHSMKX 

the boy who should be able to recite the great- 
est number of verses from the Bible. When his 
turn came he arose in his place and reeled off 
verses until the schoolmaster was fain to cry 
" Hold I enough ! "' A cotton handkcrchiet, on 
which was printed the Constitution of the I' nited 
States in colored letters, gave him the means of 
readinof and tixina; in his mind forever the words 
of that famous instrument. He was reckoned in 
the sparsely settled neighborhood as a prodigy 
of learning, and his delicate frame, big eyes, and 
musical speech were famed throughout the 
region. Of that period of his life he says: "1 
read what I could get to read, went to school 
when I could, and when not at school was a 
farmer's youngest boy, not good for much for 
want of health and strength, but expected to do 
something." He tended the saw-mill and " did 
the chores " of the house and farm. 

His brother Ezekiel and himself divided be- 
tween them the humble labors of the home. 
Ezekiel, who was Daniel's best-beloved friend 
and brother, usually took the laboring oar. 
There is an anecdote of the father calling out to 
the boys who were playing in the barn, " What 
are you doing, Daniel ? " His reply was, " Noth- 
ing." " And what are you doing, Ezekiel ? " 
" Helping Daniel." And so through life it was 
Ezekiel who helped Daniel. On another occasion 
the two lads were allowed to go to a fair in a 
neighboring town, each furnished with a little 
pocket money. When they returned in the even- 
ing Daniel was overflowing with animal spirits 



DAMKL WKIISTKR 



4a 



and enjoyment. Ezekiel was silent. The mother, 
inquiring' as to their day's doings, hnally asked 
Daniel what he liad ch)ne with his money. 
" Spent it," was the reply. " And what did vou 
do with yours, Ezekiel? " "Lent it to Daniel," 
said the elder brother. As one of his bioe:- 




Webster when a Young Man. 



raphers has said, " thatanswei" sums up the story 
ol Webster's home life in childhood. Ever3-one 
was giving or lending to Daniel of their money, 
of their time, their activity, their love and affec- 
tion. This petting was [)artially due to Web- 
ster's health, but it was also in great measure 



44 STATESMEN 

owing to his nature. He was one of those rare 
and fortunate beings who without exertion 
draw to themselves the devotion of other people 
and are always surrounded by men and women 
eager to do and suffer for them." In manhood 
he loved his friends with a love passing that of 
woman ; his great passionate and affectionate 
nature knit to him with bands of steel his chosen 
friends, and up to the day of his death some of 
these devoted and worshipful ones ministered to 
his wants and his comfort and his luxury with 
unstinting hand. 

In his biography of Webster, Mr. George T. 
Curtis, speaking of his own return to Boston for 
a few hours, while Webster's life was slowly 
ebbing away, says : " A gentleman rang at my 
door and called me out. As I met him he placed 
in my hand a thick roll of bank-notes, desiring 
me to convey it to Mr. Webster. When I asked 
him from whom it came, he mentioned the name 
of a venerable and wealthy citizen of Boston, 
who had learned that Mr. Webster was dying, 
and who had said that at such a time there 
ought to be no want of money in Mr. Webster's 
house." While we applaud the generosity of the 
giver, it is impossible to restrain a feeling of pro- 
found regret that anything should have made 
this charity even apparentlv needful. 

In due course of time he went to Dartmouth 
College, where his rustic dress and manners pro- 
voked the ridicule of his new associates. He 
found it dihicult, if not impossible, to take part 
in some of the exercises of the school, such as 



DANIEL WKBSTEil 45 

declamation aiul so on, in which he was expect- 
ed to engage; but he speedily developed a rare 
faculty tor absorbing knowledge, and not only 
became proficient in Latin and Greek, but read- 
ily acquired ancient and modern histor}-, and be- 
came familiar with the drift of public events in 
this country and in Europe. So great was his 
reputation in the college and its neighborhood 
as a speaker and writer, that the people of the 
town of Hanover invited him to deliver an ora- 
tion on July 4, 1800. He was then eighteen years 
old. This was his first public performance 
which was printed. It is characterized by the 
high-flown language of the sophomore, and was 
doubtless received with every demonstration of 
admiration and applause. He denounced France, 
then unfriendly to the United States and under 
the domination of Bonaparte, whom the young 
orator styled " the gasconading pilgrim of 
Egypt." He was graduated in due course in 
August, 1 80 1, without either special credit or 
special mention. The straitened circumstances 
of the family made it necessary that he should 
at once begin to support himself. While in col- 
lege he had added to his slender income in ev- 
ery possible way, and he now accepted the post 
of school-teacher in the town of Fryeburg, Me., 
considering himself a lucky young fellow to 
have secured the job. 

Ezekiel Webster, who appears to have been a 
man of extraordinary parts, manifested a dispo- 
sition to follow in his younger brother's foot- 
steps. After many anxious family councils, it 







,>"S' 



v,"! 



^ I 



Webster in Fishing Costume. 
{From J'l-tir J/diTiy's " K,-iitiiii.sceiiit:s ,in<l . Inrctttttes oj Dtiiiiel IlWisf,^/-." ) 



DANIEL WEBSTER 47 

was dccitlccl Ihat this step might be taken, the 
good mother oi tiie house saying, in answer to 
the remonstrances of the father, " I will trust the 
boys." Daniel's life at Fryeburg was a hard one. 
The home farm was heavily mortgaged, and 
Ezekiel, who was now in college, was no longer 
the prop and stay as he had been of the house. 
Daniel manfully carried his share of the burdens, 
and out of school-hours copied deeds and other 
legal papers, an occupation which he detested, in 
order that he might give all his salary to his 
brother preparing for college. 

Ezekiel Webster lived to attain eminence in 
the profession of the law. He was a man of high 
talent and much professional learning ; he \vas 
in person and physique not unlike his brother, 
the " godlike Daniel." He died very suddenly 
in the court-room, at Concord, N. H., wdiile ad- 
dressing a jury. He was then only forty-nine 
years old, and had he lived would have doubt- 
less reached great fame as a lawyer. Years 
later, when time had so assuaged his bitter grief 
that he could speak tranquilly of his brother's 
death, Daniel Webster said of him who was 
gone : " He appeared to me the finest human 
form that I ever laid eyes on. I saw him in his 
coffin — a tinged cheek, a complexion clear as the 
heavenly light." 

Daniel Webster was a good teacher. His dig- 
nity, even temper, and firmness commanded the 
respect of his jiupils, and wherever he went he 
produced an impression upon those whom he 
met. Those who could in later years recall his 



48 STA TESMEN 

yoiino;- manhood in Fryeburg, invai^iably spoke 
ot his inijiosing i)resence and his wonderful 
eyes. He was known in the vilhige as "All- 
Eyes." He devoured with keen zest every book 
upon which he could lay his hands, and in a sin- 
gle winter exhausted the resources of the little 
circulating library of Fryeburg. His memory 
seems to have been like iron ; an impression 
once made was ineradicable. On his death-bed 
he quoted a phrase, " The Jackdaw in the Stee- 
ple," from a poem of Cowper's, which none 
about him could recall, and the strangeness of 
which led some of them to suppose his mind 
w^as wandering. 

It is impossible to think of Webster at any 
period of his life as other than the grand, im- 
posing figure that looms up in history and in the 
memory of the few who survive him. His form 
in his manhood was tall, massive, and command- 
ing ; his face was rugged, and his overhanging 
brows were projected over deep and cavernous 
eyes in which gloomed and glowed a wonderful 
tropical light. There was, indeed, about his 
presence and in his habit of thought a certain 
Oriental flavor that seemed strangely foreign to 
New England and to the cold and inhospitable 
climate in which he was reared. 

The costume in which he generally appeared 
on public occasions has become historic. He 
wore a dress-coat of blue cloth, with brass but- 
tons ; a buff waistcoat cut low and showing an 
expanse c^f white shirt-bosom, and on his nether 
limbs trousers of black cloth. On these occasions, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 49 

too, he wore low-cut shoes and white stockings, 
and about his neck was swathed a white lawn tie 
in many folds, as was the custom of the time, and 
over this was turned his high collar. In this 
garb his portrait has been painted many times, 
and this is the outward Webster that comes to 
the mental vision of every man who ever saw 
him in public. It is impossible to conceive of 
him as being at any time and under any circum- 
stances a trivial or undignified person. He 
always was on dress-parade. He was always 
statuesque, and his was always a figure to compel 
respect. It was said of him that when a stranger 
he passed through the streets of Liverpool, Eng- 
land, casual wayfarers looked after him and said, 
" That must be a king ; " and on one occasion 
when with a friend he had had sudden occasion 
to enter a New Haven bar-room, the keeper of the 
place, startled and astonished by the grandeur of 
Webster's appearance, said breathlessly, " That 
man ought to be President at the very least." 

Yet the testimony of his intimates shows that 
his disposition was playful, and we know that he 
took great delight in the smallest details of house 
and home keeping. He had an immense fund of 
humor. He was fond of the pleasures of the table 
and chose his viands and his wines with anxious 
and appreciative care. While he was Secretary 
of State, and an important treaty — that which 
settled the Northeastern boundary question — 
was coming to a vote in the Senate, he paused 
in the midst of the burdens of State and wrote a 
letter to his farmer in New England, giving ex- 
4 



50 STATESMEN 

|)li(il directions about the care ol certain sail 
lia\ , the buildinj^ ol a pii^i^ci}', and other similar 
matters. 

There are extant many letters giving- charm- 
ing glimpses of the man in undress, as we may 
say. One of these is addressed to John Taylor, 
who had charge of his farm in Franklin, N. H. 
It was written just after Webster's famous 7th 
of March speech, delivered in 1852, when the 
great Senator was overwhelmed with the bitter- 
ness of the political contest then raging, not only 
about him in Washington, but all over the coun- 
try. Thus he begins : " John Taylor. Go ahead. 
The heart of the winter is broken and before the 
first day of April all your land may be plowed. 
Buy the oxen of Captain INIarston if you think 
the price fair. Pay for the hay. I send you a 
check for $160 for these two objects. Put the 
great oxen in a condition to l)e turned out to be 
fattened. You have a good horse team and I 
think in addition to this four oxen and a pair of 
foiu"-y ear-old steers will do vour work." 

After giving directions of this kind with great 
minuteness and admonishing Taylor that he 
wants " no pennxroyal crops," and that his 
mother's garden must be kept in the best ordei- 
at any cost, he turns to politics, as if it were im- 
possible to keep his thoughts out of the com- 
motion going on about him, and savs : 

" There are some animals that live best in the 
fire, and there are some men who delight in heat, 
smoke, combustion and even general conflagra- 
ti(jn. They do not value the things which make 



DANIEL WEBSTEIi 51 

peace; lhc\' cnjoN- onh' conlroxci'sv, contention, 
and strife. IIa\c no communion witli such [)cr- 
sons either as neighbors or politicians. ^ On hd\c 
no more right to say that slavery ought not to 
exist in Virginia than a Virginian has to sav that 
slavery ought to exist in New Hampshire. This 
is a question left to every State to decide for 
itself, and if we mean to keep the States together 
we must leave to every State this power of de- 
ciding for itself. . . . John Taylor, you are a 
free man ; 3'ou possess good principles, you have 
a large family to rear and provide for by your 
labor. Be thankful for the government which 
does not oppress you, which does not bear vou 
down by excessive taxation, but which holds out 
to you and to yours the hope of all the bless- 
ings which liberty, industry, and security may 
give. John Tavlor, thank God morning and 
evening that vou are born in such a coiuitry. 
John Tavlor, never write me another word u])on 
politics." 

Webster, through all his life, was easily in- 
fluenced by others, especially when those others 
had won his confidence and affection. His con- 
duct in the matter of the lucrative court-clerk- 
ship offered him in 1804, when he most needed 
money, was a good example of this trait. His 
brother Ezekiel was then manfully fighting his 
way to college ; Daniel was occasionally earning a 
little money in the law office of Mr. Christopher 
Gore, of Boston, when the judges of the Court 
of Common Pleas, in which his father practised 
in New Hampshire, offered Daniel the place of 



52 STATES M EX 

clerk at a salary of $1,500 a year. To the 
3^ouni^ law student this was a princely income ; 
it would be equal to five or ten thousand dollars 
in these days. That income would enable him 
to smooth Ezekiel's road to the hill of learning, 
lift the home mortgage and lighten the labors of 
his father's last years. He joyfully prepared 
to return to New Hampshire and enter upon 
his profitable and welcome duties. To his in- 
tense astonishment and disappointment, Mr. 
Gore coldly expressed his disapproval of the 
change. He pointed out the danger that he 
might be removed at any time by the favor of 
the judges, that the salary might be reduced, and 
that it led to nothing, and would block any 
great career that might open before him. Dazed 
and dumbfounded by this unexpected presenta- 
tion of the case, Webster reluctantly admitted 
its justness, and, much to the amazement of his 
father, declined the post. It was well. Never- 
theless, even the narrowing labors of that small 
office could not have long crippled or hedged in 
the genuis of Daniel Webster. 

His first great legal argument was that in the 
celebrated Dartmouth College case which was 
argued in 181 8 before the United States Supreme 
Court. As a lawyer, he had a certain divine in- 
stinct to seize upon the points of any case which 
was committed to him. On one occasion an im- 
portant lawsuit was put in his hands by a firm 
of lawyers to argue before the United States 
Supreme Court. The briefs in the case were 
sent to him in Washington by the hand of a 



DANIKL M'EBSTEll 



53 



junior member of the law firm, and when Web- 
ster looked the papers over he said : "And is this 
all?" The younger man said timidly: "There 
is another point which I have presented to the 
firm, but which they thought not material," and 
then he stated the case. Webster's eyes glowed 
and he said : " My dear sir, that is the point ; " and 
on this he won the case. The Dartmouth Col- 
lege case was one in which the Legislature of the 




■5,-^;^% ^-'^^*^'^"1: ^rr^M 



Webster's Home at Marshfield, Mass. 

State of New Hampshire had interfered with 
the interior government of the college and had 
attempted to change its course of direction. 
Webster's contention was that " the principle in 
our constitutional jurisprudence which regards 
a charter of a private corporation as a contract 
and places it under the protection of the Consti- 
tution of the United States debarred the Legisla- 
ture from interfering." The decision in the case, 
which was made February, 1819, affirmed the 
ground taken by Webster and established a prec- 
edent in law which was of the highest importance. 



54 ,S7'J TKSMKX 

Tt cannot be said that as a jury lawyer Web- 
ster alwaws relied iijjon the law in the case. In 
a celebrated nuirder trial in \\ hich he appeared 
loi" the prosecution in Salem, Mass., in 1830 
he was said to have lairl\- terrihed the jury in- 
to conyiction. Ca})tain White, a retired and 
wealthy sea-captain of Salem, had been mur- 
dered in his bed. J. F. Kna})p and others as ac- 
cessories were accused oi the crime. It was in 
this trial that he made a wonderful argument iri 
which he described the circumstances af a mur- 
der, the inmost feelings of the slayer and his 
stealthy escape. In his address to the jury oc- 
curs the celebrated passage, when, speaking of 
the crime of murder, he said : " It betrays his dis- 
cretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers 
his prudence. When suspicions from without 
begin to embarrass him and the net of circimi- 
stance to entangle him the fatal secret struggles 
with still greater yiolence to burst fortli. It 
must be confessed, it will be confessed ; there 
is no refuge from confession but suicide, and 
suicide is confession." 

So, in the Dartmouth College case, although 
that was not, as one might well suppose, a cause 
with which to moyc an audience profoundly, it 
is true ol Webster that those who heard his clos- 
ing sentences listened with faces wet with tears. 
Protessor Chauncey Goodrich, ol Vale College, 
who heard this remarkable speech and wrote an 
account of it, says that Webster closed with these 
words: "Sir, nou ina\' (lesti-o\- this little insti- 
tution; it is weak; it is in \our luuids. I know 



DANIKJ. \Vh\J!STh'Il 55 

it is one of the lesser lights in the literary hori- 
zon of our country. You may put it out. But 
if you do so, you must carry through your 
work, ^'ou must extinguish, one after another, 
all those greater lights of science which lor 
more than a century have thrown their radiance 
over our land. It is, sir, as I have said, a small 
college. And yet there are those who love 
it." " Here," says Professor Goodrich, " the feel- 
ings he had thus far succeeded in keeping 
down broke forth. His lips quivered ; his firm 
cheeks trembled with emotion ; his eyes were 
filled with tears ; his voice choked, and he 
seemed struggling to the utmost to gain that 
mastery over himself which might save him 
from an unmanly burst of feeling. 
The whole seemed mingled throughout with the 
recollection of father, mother, brother, and all 
the privations and trials through which he had 
made his way into life. Everyone saw that it 
was wholly unpremeditated, a pressure on his 
heart, which sought relief in words and tears." 
It was then that the great loving heart of Web- 
ster spoke in most moving eloquence. 

It was as an occasional orator that Webster 
achieved his greatest fame, possibly with the 
single exception of his celebrated reply to 
Hayne. The oration at Plymouth, Mass., de- 
livered on the two hundreth anniversary ol its 
settlement, December 22, 1820, was perhaps the 
first of his greatest oratorical discourses. The 
first Bunker Hill oration, delivered in June, 
1825, was a work of the greatest splendor. Mag- 



56 STATESMEN 

nificent in conception, luminous with the grand- 
est imagery, flowing like the full volume of a 
river, it at once commanded the attention of the 
entire nation. It was spoken, it would appear, 
not so much to the few thousands that clustered 
around the foundations of Bunker Hill monu- 
ment as to the republic, to posterity. This 
was one of the first, if not the first, of the great 
orations of Webster that took their place in the 
literature of the country and were embodied in 
the text-books of the schools for the inspira- 
tion of the youth of the republic. The passage 
beginning " Venerable men, you have come 
down to us from a former generation," it is said, 
so thrilled the audience that one could see the 
play of light and shade as it swept over the sea 
of upturned faces before the speaker. The im- 
pression which this speech made upon those who 
heard it was probably more vivid than that left 
by any other of his later occasional orations. 

Another splendid display of his eloquence was 
the eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, delivered in 
Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1826. Of that speech, the 
passage which purports to be a speech delivered 
by John Adams when the signing of the Decla- 
ration of Independence was under discussion, it 
is explained that Webster deliberately invented 
the whole. Many school-boys have declaimed 
the immortal words beginning " Sink or swim, 
live or die, survive or perish," under the im- 
pression that these were the real words of 
John Adams ; but Webster never pretended 
that they were. In a letter to an inquiring 



DANIEL WEBSTER 57 

friend, written in 1846, Webster said: "The 
Congress of the Revolution sat with closed 
doors; its proceedings were made known to the 
public from time to time by printing its journal, 
but the debates were not published. So far as I 
know, there is not existing in print or manu- 
script the speech or any part or fragment of the 
speech delivered by Mr. Adams on the question 
of the Declaration of Independence." Webster 
goes on to say : " The speech was written by me 
in my house in Boston the day before the de- 
livery of the discourse in Faneuil Hall. A poor 
substitute I am sure it would appear to be if we 
could now see the speech actually made by Mr. 
Adams on that transcendentally important oc- 
casion." 

It has been said by some of the indiscreet and 
intemperate admirers of Webster's genius that 
many if not all of his greatest orations were com- 
posed upon the spur of the moment and that his 
greatest efforts were purely extemporaneous and 
suggested by the circumstances immediately 
about him. I have somewhere seen an anecdote 
to this effect : His oration on Alexander Hamil- 
ton was delivered at a public dinner in New 
York, and when he approached that passage in 
which he used the memorable words applied to 
Hamilton, " He smote the rock of the national 
resources and abundant streams of revenue 
gushed forth," etc., in making a gesture, the 
orator broke a drinking-glass and cut his finger, 
and as he slowly wrapped a napkin about the 
bleeding wound, the figure of the gushing stream 



58 



STATESMEN 



was suggested by the incident. This is clearly 
a misconception, as Webster had in his mind the 
figure of Moses smiting the rock in the wilder- 
ness. And we have the as- 
surance of those who knew 
him best, Mr. George T. 
Curtis and Mr. Peter Har- 
vey, that all his great fo- 
rensic and oratorical efforts 
were the result of care- 
ful preparation. Webster 
himself said of his reply to 
Hayne, that as a matter of 
fact that speech had been 
lying in his mind and in the 
pigeon-holes of his desk for 
more than a year. It was 
prepared for another oc- 
casion, but was not deliv- 
ered ; and Webster declared that if Mr. Hayne 
had intended to make a speech to fit that which 
Webster had already, he could not have come 
nearer to it than he did. Once when asked if 
certain of his speeches were delivered at brief 
notice, he opened his great eyes with an. expres- 
sion of astonishment and said : " Young man, 
there is no such thing as extemporaneous acqui- 
sition." Webster spoke extemporaneously con- 
stantly while he was in the Senate, and he in- 
tended to C(jnvey by this remark that knowledge 
could not be acquired without study, and that 
study was necessarv to acquire the knowledge 
which informed all of his speeches. 




DANIEL WEBSTER 59 

It has been said, too, that in oratory Webster 
was a sculptor rather than a painter. This 
seems a too subtile definition. Certainly many 
of his orations glow with light and color, and 
his powers of description were often simply pic- 
torial. In his reply to Hayne he pictures the 
patriots of Massachusetts and South Carolina 
marching shoulder to shoulder as they went 
through the Revolution, or standing hand in 
hand around the administration of Washington, 
and in the wonderful peroration of that great ad- 
dress, as he raised his eyes to the glass skylight 
of the Senate chamber and saw the colors of the 
Republic waving from the flagstaff, he ex- 
claimed : " Let their last feeble and lingering 
glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the 
republic, now known and honored throughout 
the earth, still full-high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in their original lustre, not 
a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star ob- 
scured," This was full of color. 

Webster loved color and bigness and vast- 
ness. Among all his creatures on his farm none 
were so dear to him as his great oxen, and in his 
last days he had- these slow-moving animals 
driven up to his window where he could look 
at them, hear their breathings and gaze into 
their great eyes as he reclined within. The 
illimitable sea with its mysterious vagueness, 
Niagara with its terrific downpour and its re- 
sounding roar, and the great peaks of the White 
Mountains, all moved him profoundly. The ca- 
thedrals of Europe and the enormous bulks of 



60 STATESMEN 

masonry that he saw in England seemed to have 
impressed him more than anything else he be- 
held. These appealed to his sense of grandeur ; 
their mere greatness may be said to be akin to 
the somewhat grandiose quality of his own dis- 
position. He was always monumental ; even his 
familiar talk was pervaded with a certain unex- 
pectedness of illustration that was most original. 

On one occasion when the Senate had had an 
all-night session and the Senators were doz- 
ing in their chairs, one who sat near Webster, 
aroused by the noise of the janitor opening the 
shutters in the upper part of the great room, 
said : " What is that — are they letting in the 
day-light?" "They are letting out the dark- 
ness," was Webster's reply in his deepest, grum- 
mest, bass voice, as he nodded in his chair. 

As to his public life it is only necessary to re- 
call these dates : He was first chosen a repre- 
sentative to the lower house of Congress from 
the Portsmouth, N. H., district, and took his 
seat in May, 1813, while the young republic was 
still engaged in the war with Great Britain. 
Two years later he was re-elected, and at the 
end of this his second term he retired from public 
office and moved to Boston, where he sought and 
obtained an enlargement of his already lucrative 
law practice. It was said that at this time he 
had the amplest income of any lawyer in the 
United States — $20,000 — which was a great sum 
for those days, being named as the average of 
his earnings. In 1822 he was again elected to 
Congress as a representative from the Boston 



DANIEL WEBSTER 61 

district. He continued in the House of Repre- 
sentatives until 1827, when he was chosen United 
States Senator from Massachusetts for the term 
of six years. He was re-elected in 1833 ^ri^l in 
1839, but retired from the Senate in 1841 to ac- 
cept the office of Secretary of State under Presi- 
dent Harrison. When John Tyler succeeded to 
the Presidency, after the death of General Har- 
rison, Mr. Webster was the only member of the 
Harrison Cabinet to remain in office, and in 
1842 he concluded the famous Ashburton treaty, 
which defined the Northeastern boundary be- 
tween the United States and Canada. He re- 
tired from the State Department shortly after 
and remained in private life until 1845, when 
again he was returned to the Senate by the State 
of Massachusetts and remained a member of 
that body during the Mexican war and the ad- 
ministration of President Taylor. When Taylor 
was succeeded by Fillmore, on the death of the 
former, in 1850, Mr. Webster again entered the 
Cabinet as Secretary of State and held that 
office up to the day of his death. 

It is probable that Webster's ambition to reach 
the Presidency was kindled during the exciting 
period that followed his great speech in reply to 
Hayne, when he was offered much applause. 
This was in 1830. Ten years later he was a for- 
midable competitor for the Whig nomination 
which was carried off by General Harrison. 
Again, in 1844, he seemed to come near realizing 
his hopes, but was defeated by Henry Clay, 
Once more, in 1848, he contested the nomination 



C)'2 STATESMEN 

al Baltiiiiore and was conlessedlv and billcrly 
disappointed b}' the nomination (^f General Scott. 
In all these cases WeDster's chagrin and dis- 
appointment were doubtless very great, but it 
was not until repeated failures had somewhat 
soured his naturally sweet and genial disposition 
that he made open demonstration of his disgust. 
He did not hesitate to say that one of these 
nominations was not fit to be made, and that 
another successful candidate was merely the rep- 
resentative of " availability." As Secretary of 
State his name will always be identified with 
several events of great importance in the his- 
tory of the republic. His settlement of the 
Northeastern boundary question, his attitude 
toward General Jackson in the great United 
States bank war, his letter to Mr. Hulseman, 
the Austrian ambassador, concerning the Hun- 
garian rebellion, his management of the case 
of the steamer Caroline, and other matters 
growing out of our ticklish relations with Can- 
ada, are among the points which stand out prom- 
inently in his career as a minister of state. 

In debate Webster was not only dignified, but 
urbane and kindly disposed and chivalrous tow- 
ard those engaged against him. He never 
descended to personalities, never took unfair 
advantage of an adversary, and never resorted 
to any tricks of sophistry to confuse an oppo- 
nent. In one of his letters from England, speak- 
ing of his visit to the British Parliament, he 
said : " I have liked some of the speeches very 
well ; they generally show excellent temper, po- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 63 

liteness, and mutual respect among- the speak- 
ers. 

Wlien, shortly alter his lamous 7th of March 
speech, 1850, he returned to lUassachusetts, his 
friends went through the form of asking the 
Board of Aldermen for the use of Faneuil Hall. 
To their infinite consternation and wrath that 
favor was denied. The persons composing a 
majority of the Board of Aldermen belonged 
to a peculiar political combination known as 
the Coalitionists. Webster's 7th of March 
speech was by them believed to be a bid for 
Southern support in his coming campaign for 
the Presidential nomination. It is true that 
for the first time in his life he appeared to have 
forsaken his principles and was now disposed 
to temporize with the slave power. He had 
lost favor in New England, and throughout 
the North his speech on the compromise meas- 
ures of that year had been received with 
mingled incredulity and scorn. But no words 
can express the indignation of the stanch Whigs 
of Boston, who worshipped Webster as an idol, 
when it was suddenly made known that the 
doors of Faneuil Hall were closed against this 
demi-god. He spoke, however, to a great throng 
that gathered about the hotel where he was 
stopping, and unconsciously added fuel to the 
flames by making use of one or two unfortunate 
phrases, which were picked up and commented 
upon by a hostile press. One of these was that 
Massachusetts men must " conquer their preju- 
dices" and support the Fugitive Slave law, a 



04 STATESMEN 

measure tlien re»-arded by the people whom he 
addressed with the bitterest execrati(jn. The 
use of Faneuil Hall was subsequently tendered 
to him by the city government in the most ob- 
sequious manner; but his engagements made it 
impossible for him to speak at that time, and his 
last appearance there was one year later. In the 
meantime he had not publicly spoken in Boston, 
and the belief that he would take occasion now t(j 
refer to last 3^ear's denial of the privileges of the 
hall drew together a great crowd. It was past 
two o'clock in the afternoon when Webster, broken 
with the cares of state, harassed by infinite dis- 
appointment, oppressed by the sense of declin- 
ing power and popularity, and hampered by a 
lameness resulting from a recent accident, rose 
to speak ; but instead of addressing himself to 
any discussion of the event which was upper- 
most in men's minds — his previous exclusion from 
Faneuil Hall— he contented himself by saying : 
" This is Faneuil Hall — opr;/," and passed on to 
the consideration of the state of the country and 
to other matters very remote from those which 
oppressed the mind of the people. A practical 
New Englander, standing in the crowd, said 
"that word 'open' weighed about five tons." 
When he spoke in front of his hotel, he said : 
" Break up the Whig party ! And what will be- 
come of Me ? " Those who heard this portentous 
question, for a moment seemed to think that a tre- 
mendous disaster himg over the nation as he thus 
spoke. The end of the world seemed to be nigh. 
Although Webster has long since been dead. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 65 

controversy over his attitude on several impor- 
tant political questions of his day still is liable to 
start up at any time. Was his course on the 
tariff statesmanlike ? Did he sacrifice principle 
for personal expediency when the slavery com- 
promises of 1850 came up for discussion ? It has 
been argued in his behalf that as New England 
was not in favor of a protective tariff in 1826, 
and was in favor of it a few years later, Web- 
ster was entirely justified in changing sides as 
his constituents changed. This was not exactly 
harmonious with his contention that he was an 
independent Senator — independent of his con- 
stituents to a certain degree. It remains true 
that he changed sides on the tariff question 
within the space of two years. 

On the slavery question his attitude was still 
less satisfactory. It is impossible to resist the 
impression that Webster's inclination to tempo- 
rize was due to his unconquerable desire for a 
Presidential nomination. No living man had de- 
nounced the institution of American slaver}- in 
words more bitter and burning than his. He 
had studiously refrained from any appearance of 
meddling with slavery in the States in which it 
already existed. But he had urged that its ex- 
tension must not be thought of. Yet, when the 
compromise measures of 1850 were up, he was 
willing to support the Fugitive Slave law and to 
leave the question of slavery in the new Terri- 
tories to the laws of nature. This was the funda- 
mental of the 7th of March speech — a speech 
which revolted New England against him. 
5 



C,a STATES 31 EX 

There is one phase of Webster's character 
which cannot be evaded in an\- biogiaphical 
sketch or cHscussion of ids career. His income, 
as I have said, was at times veiw i;"reat ; it nnij,ht 
have been greater; bnt in any event, wliatever 
his earnings may have been, it is clear that lie 
was incapable of liusbanding his resources and 
of keeping out of debt. After he went to Bos- 
ton he W'as always in debt. His friends, who 
were many and devoted, were constantly called 
upon to supply the deficiences of his bank ac- 
count. Even in his youth he was indifferent to 
debt, and in his later years this indifference in- 
creased beyond all reason. He not only never 
saved, but he lived beyond his means. He loved 
handsome things, a fine library, great herds of 
cattle, a noble estate, and an ample clomain. He 
was accused by his enemies of selling his influence 
for gain. Doubtless these accusations were un- 
founded, but his reputation for thriftlessness and 
debt-incurring probably gave ground for sus- 
picion witii many who would have liked to think 
well of him. Even in his last days, when he was 
ill and should have been taking his ease, he ac- 
cepted a large fee in the celebrated Goodyear 
india-rubber litigation because he was in debt. 
" This fee," he said, " I must have, for it will 
pay fifteen thousand dollars of my debts, and 
that is what I am striving to do ; it is what, if 
my life is spared, I mean to do. If I can pay my 
debts I shall die in peace, a happy man." But 
he died insolvent. The trusts which he made in 
his will of [)r()perty and money, which tor him 



DANIEL WEBSTER ^7 

had no real existence, were undertaken by his 
friends who, when he lay in his tomb at Marsh- 
field, discharged obligations and ^prosperously 
administered his estate. A day or two before 
he died he said : " I should like to provide some- 
thing for my family and not leave them to the 
cold charity of the world, but Providence guides 
and overrules ; 1 cannot help it and therefore I 
submit to it." There is something profoundly 
pathetic in these words of the great man. It was 
lamentable that he should have been so left that 
his last days should have been embittered by 
thoughts of poverty. He was incapable of sav- 
ing, large though his means were ; but it should 
be added that his bounty was as broad and gen- 
erous as his personal desires. He was a spend- 
thrift, and he gave as ungrudgingly to others as 
to the gratification of his own appetites and 
passions. 

It has been said of him that he was a mag- 
nificent animal. On this phase of his character 
we need not look. It is enough to know that he 
was a transcendent genius, a great power in the 
land, a defender of the nationality of the States, an 
unerring expounder of the Federal Constitution, 
and unalterably devoted to the perpetuit}' and 
integrity of the Union. In his last hours we see 
him lying in the darkness and seclusion of his 
house by the sea at Marshfield, his large, sad 
eyes turning to look through the silent watches 
of the night upon the light that showed the flag 
of his country waving from the masthead of a 
little shallop moored by the shore. 



68 



STATESMEN 



True to his dignified habits of thought and or- 
atorical expression, even in those last hours he 
gathered his family and friends about him and 
discoursed of his relations to his God, of his love 
and affection to his famil}-, and of the immortal- 
ity of the soul. After a moment of silence, he 
roused himself and looking eagerly around asked : 
" Have I — wife, son, doctor, friends, are you all 
here ? — have I on this occasion said anything un- 
worthy of Daniel Webster? " Dramatic and dig- 
nified to the last, he said but little more. Past 
midnight, when it was supposed he would never 
speak again, he roused himself with the memor- 
able words, " I still live." From this he sank by 
slow degrees, and when the bright autumnal 
Sunday morning of October 24, 1852, dawned 
goldenly upon the shore, the bells of Marsh- 
field told to listening ears that a great man was 
dead. 





.J . 





John C, Calhoun. 



III. 

JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

There were three bright particular stars 
shining- in the political sky of the American 
republic during the first half of the nineteenth 
century. Each burned with a lustre of his own. 
Calhoun, Clay, and Webster formed this con- 
stellation. The genius of John C. Calhoun 
shone with the cold, clear frosty starlight of 
a Northern atmosphere. Although Calhoun was 
a Southron born and bred, there was nothing 
tropical in his temperament or his character. 
His logic was pitiless and cold, his reasoning im- 
placable, his intellect calm. 

There is something melancholy, too, about his 
career. He left very little material for a per- 
sonal biography, and not much is known con- 
cerning his individuality and private life. The 
fire of his genius burned itself out in a hope- 
less defence of the darling institution of slavery, 
and he died just as the fabric which he had so 
painfully reared was beginning to topple to its 
fall. 

It is needless at this late day to make any ar- 
gument to prove the intellectual greatness of Cal- 
houn. His place in the great triumvirate has 
been fixed by the muse of history and by the 



70 



STATESMEN 



concurrent opinion of more than one generation. 
No breath of slander ever stained his name, and 
though he had ambitious dreams of his arriving 
at the highest offtce in the gift of the American 
people, his course was singularly free of even 
the semblance of self-seeking ; and it does not 




Calhoun in Early Life. 



appear that he was ever swerved from the line 
of obvious duty by any anxiety for the Presi- 
dential office and its opportunities, honors, and 
allurements. The fatal defect in his moral and 
mental equipment was the hallucination that 
governed it. He believed in the inmost of his 
being that slavery was right and good, only 



JOHN C. ALII UN 71 

i^ood, and that slavery as it then existed in the 
domestic institutions of the South could live 
there and in the territories to be acquired, com- 
patible with the Federal Union and as undis- 
turbed (if men did well), as any of the humblest 
and least important domestic concerns of either 
section of the Union. At that time Seward 
had not published his startling statement that 
there was an irrepressible conflict between the 
two systems of labor. Lincoln had not pro- 
claimed the doctrine that the Union could not 
exist half slave and half free. Calhoun spent 
seven years of his early manhood in the North 
— four years at Yale College and three at the 
law school of Litchfield, Ct. Yet in that time 
he failed to gain any clear idea of the temper 
of the Northern people on the slavery ques- 
tion or to discern that they had any moral ideas 
whatever on the problem that was to be the 
one great burden of his mature life and his old 
age. 

He was a young lawyer just beginning to 
practice at the bar at Abbeville, S. C, when 
the first mutterings of the war with England 
(1812) began to be heard. He was an ardent, 
youthful patriot when the bloody affair of the 
Chesapeake and the Shannon, off the coast of 
New England, occurred, in 1807, and he was 
one of the committee of citizens of South Car- 
olina to draw up an indignant protest against 
that outrage upon the seas. He was twenty-nine 
years old when, in 181 1, he first t(jok his seat 
in the lower house of Congress, to which he 



72 STATESMEN 

had been elected and which met in special ses- 
sion in the crisis of the last great struggle be- 
tween the republic and Great Britain. Of 
his private life we know very little. He seems 
to have destroyed much of that variety of docu- 
ment which is known after a man's death as his 
" literary remains." His correspondence, memo- 
randa, and other private papers were bequeathed 
to a friend living in Virginia, under certain re- 
strictions, and it is said that during the War 
of the Rebellion much of this accumulation 
was lost or destroyed. He was a planter and 
a slave-owner, and his estate at Fort Hill, S. C, 
was well managed and prosperous. His slaves 
were well treated and they came to him as 
an umpire, judge, and friend. A rigid justice 
characterized his management and regulated 
all his doings with the highest and the low- 
est. One biographer says that " his counte- 
nance at rest was strikingly marked by decision 
and firmness ; in conversation or when speak- 
ing, it became highly animated and expressive. 
His large, dark, brilliant, penetrating eyes 
strongly impressed all who encountered their 
glances. When addressing the Senate he stood 
firm, erect, accompanying his delivery with an 
angular gesticulation. His manner of speaking 
was energetic, ardent, and rapid, and marked by 
a solemn earnestness which inspired a strong be- 
lief in his sincerity and deep conviction. He 
very rarely indulged in figures of speech, and 
seldom left any doubt as to his meaning." He 
appears to have been utterly destitute of either 



r4r'«^-^---^^^-4n>- \ 










V < 



74 STATESMEN 

wit or humor. Nathan Sargent says of him : 
" Able as Mr. Calhoun certainly was, he found 
an antagonist in Mr. Clay too adroit and ready 
for him. He required time to prepare his matter 
and arrange his ideas, even to select his words. 
Mr. Clay did not, at least in a personal contro- 
versy. As he said, he was self- poised, ever 
ready, he could fire off-hand without rest. Mr. 
Calhoun, on the contrary, must have time to load 
and take deliberate aim. In doing so he was 
sure to hit and penetrate the most vulnerable 
point of his antagonist, but while he was doing 
this his antagonist would have hit him in a half 
dozen places." 

I have said that he was destitute of humor, 
but he was sometimes the cause of wit in others. 
Even Webster, who seldom employed any pleas- 
antry in his speeches in the Senate, was pro- 
voked into a humorous sally when Calhoun, on 
going into the Cabinet of John Tyler, landed in 
the camp of his former enemies. Webster re- 
ferred to a mock play written in England by 
some wit to ridicule the sentimentality of a cer- 
tain German school of literature. Two strangers 
meet at an inn ; suddenly one springs up and ex- 
claims : " A sudden thought strikes me ; let us 
swear eternal friendship." The offer was in- 
stantly accepted. Mr. Webster graphically de- 
scribed the contest in which he and his friends 
and Senator Calhoun and his friends were and 
had been long engaged, and when victory was 
at last apparently in their grasp, the South Caro- 
lina Senator suddenly cries out to his enemies, 



JOHN C. CALHOUN 75 

" Halloo ! a sudden thovight strikes me ; I aban- 
don my allies; they have always been my op- 
pressors ; let you and I swear eternal friend- 
ship." 

It is curious to note how Calhoun advanced 
his lines of the defence of slavery from year to 
year. His attention had been attracted to the 
breaking out of abolitionism in the North. He 
deprecated these distant attacks upon the cher- 
ished institution of slavery, and he appeared to 
think that the Northern Senators were blamable 
because they did not by some process which he 
did not himself explain suppress the words which 
so excited his anger. He appeared to think that 
wordy fulminations from Washington or from 
the South would deaden or misdirect the moral 
sense of the North, then very slowly awakening 
to the enormity of the crime of human slavery. 
Suddenly, in January, 1836, his attention was 
aroused by the appearance in the Senate of peti- 
tions for the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia. The attacks of these abolition 
petitions were not in the least directed against 
slavery in the States, but solely against slavery 
in the District ; but from his point of view all 
petitions on the subject of slavery were in them- 
selves a " foul slander on nearly one-half of the 
States of the Union." It made no difference to 
him that their ultimate result was unpromising. 
His objection was that unless an undoubted pro- 
vision of the Constitution compelled the receiv- 
ing of such petitions, it was the duty of the Sen- 
ate to reject them at the door. He took the 



7n fiTA TEf^MEN 

ground that Congress had no jurisdiction what- 
ever over the subject of slavery in whatever 
form it might be presented, and no more power 
over it in the District of Columbia than in the 
States. The Senate, however, decided to re- 
ceive the petitions and then to reject them. 

His next line was drawn at the exclusion 
of so-called " incendiary documents " from the 
mails. These documents were tracts, books, or 
papers containing arguments designed to show 
that human slavery was wicked and that its 
maintenance was not in any way economical to 
the States in which it existed ; but it pleased 
Mr. Calhoun and others to assume that these 
documents were incendiary, because, as they 
said, they were designed to foment insurrection 
and risings among the people held in slaver3\ 
His contention was that " the internal peace and 
security of the States are under the protection 
of the States themselves, to the entire exclusion 
of all authority and control on the part of Con- 
gress. It belongs to them and not to Congress 
to determine what is or what is not calculated to 
disturb their peace and security." President 
Jackson had recommended that the mails should, 
be closed to all publications tainted with the 
spirit of abolitionism, and he invited Congress to 
pass a law prohibiting " under severe penalties 
the circulation in the Southern States, through 
the mails, of incendiary publications intended to 
instigate slaves to insurrection." As a matter of 
fact, no such publications had ever been issued,' 
and what the President reallv wanted was to ex- 



JOHN C. CALHOUN 77 

elude from the mails all printed matter designed 
to shake any man's faith in the morality and 
righteousness of slavery. Calhoun introduced a 
bill providing that postmasters who knowingly 
transmitted or delivered papers treating of slav- 
ery in any way contrary to the laws of the State 
should be punished by fine and imprisonment. 
His theory was that the State, and not the Fed- 
eral Congress, should determine what should be 
regarded as contrary to the laws bearing upon 
this question. 

His next step was that slavery in the abstract 
was not an evil, as many (even slaveholders) 
had admitted that it was. He took the high 
ground that negro slavery was " a positive 
good," and said : " The relation now existing in 
the slave-holding States between the two races is, 
instead of an evil, a good, a positive good." And 
his argument was that the negroes were bene- 
fited by slavery because their moral condition 
was better than it would have been in the wilds 
of Africa, and that it was a blessing for native- 
born Americans of the negro race to be kept in 
slavery because it had been a blessing to their 
ancestors for generations back. He said : " The 
white or European race is not degenerated. It 
has kept up with its brethren in other sections 
of the Union where slavery does not exist. It is 
odious to make comparisons, but I appeal to all 
States whether the South is not equal in virtue, 
intelligence, patriotism, courage, disinterested- 
ness, and all the higher qualities which adorn 
our nature." 



78 STA TESMEN 

Once more he advanced his lines when new 
territory was acquired by the United States. 
His theory was that the Constitution permitted 
slavery everywhere until it was deliberately 
recognized or deliberately disallowed by legal 
statutes. Singularly enough, he clung loyally 
and tenaciously to the idea that slavery and the 
Union could exist together amicabl}', and what- 
ever were his vagaries on the subject of States 
rights and nullification, it must be said of him 
that up to his latest breath he continued sin- 
cerely devoted to the Federal Union. He was 
not a disunionist ; he did not plot for a dissolu- 
tion of the Union, and it is gross injustice to 
charge him, as some have charged him, with 
being ready to consent to the establishment of a 
Southern confederacy in order that he might be 
the president of a new republic after having 
failed in his ambition to be President of the 
Federal Union. As early as 1839 ^^ astonished 
the Senate by asserting with great vehemence 
that " a dissolution of the Union had ever been 
and would for all future time remain an imagi- 
nary danger." Referring to the compromise 
tariff he said : " It terminated honestlv and fairly, 
and without the sacrifice of any interest, one of 
the most dangerous controversies that ever dis- 
turbed the Union or endangered its existence, 
not the danger of dismemberment, as we learn 
from the Senator [Buchanan] was anticipated 
abroad. No, the danger lay in a different direc- 
tion. Dismemberment is not the only mode by 
which our uni(jn may be destroyed. It is a fed- 



JOHN a. CALHOUN 79 

eral union, a union of sovereign States, and can 
be as effectually and much more easily destroyed 
by consolidation as by dismemberment. . . . 
The constant struggle is to enlarge and not to 
divide, and there neither is nor ever has been 
the least danger that our union should ter- 
minate in dissolution." At another time, in a 
letter to the citizens of Athens, Ga., he said, re- 
ferring to the peculiar institution of the South : 
" The Constitution has placed in our power am- 
ple means, short of secession or disunion, to pro- 
tect ourselves." 

More than any other, Calhoun was responsible 
for the annexation of Texas, although he pas- 
sionately denied all responsibility for the war 
with Mexico which followed and which he sup- 
ported with languor. War was always distaste- 
ful to him, although he sounded the clarion-call 
to arms when the country was in danger from 
the aggressions of England and France. Being 
called by President Tyler to fill the place of 
Secretary of State, from which office Webster 
had been conveniently shuffled out, he put on 
foot negotiations for the annexation of Texas. 
By an ingenious device this was called at that 
time the re-annexation of Texas, the territory 
having been part of what was known as the 
Florida purchase when the contiguous territory 
became absorbed into the Federal Union. By 
some miscarriage of diplomacy, as Southern 
statesmen always declared, that region lying west 
of Louisiana and east of the Rio Grande be- 
came the property of Mexico. When the prov- 



80 ST A TES^rEN 

ince declared its independence from Mexico, it 
was well understood that tliis was only a step 
preliminary to demanding admission into the 
Federal Union. While negotiations were pend- 
ing, a treaty for annexation having been rejected 
by the Senate, James K. Polk was nominated by 
the Democrats as the advocate of immediate 
annexation, and at the next succeeding session 
of Congress the project was again renewed, and 
Calhoun, who had returned to the Senate, be- 
came one of its most ardent supporters. After 
a series of adventures not altogether creditable 
to American diplomacy or American good faith, 
the country was plunged into war with Mexico. 
Calhoun, while publicly accepting the imputation 
of being the author of the annexation of Texas, 
insisted that the responsibility for the war be- 
longed to the President, who had violated the 
Constitution bv sending troops on his own per- 
sonal authority into the disputed territory. 

Finally, annexation being an accomplished 
fact, the question of slavery in the Territories 
again came before Congress for settlement. 
Calhoun not only denied any power of Congress 
to exclude slavery from the Territories, but in 
still stronger terms denied the ])ower to do it on 
the part of the inhabitants or legislators of those 
Territories. His contention was that only a 
sovereign State could legislate on the subject of 
slavery. He suggested that the Constitution of 
the United States, extending into the Territories 
acquired from Mexico, would operate to repeal 
the existing: local Mexican laws abolishing sla- 



JOHN C. CALHOUN 81 

very. And again he insisted that if the South 
wished to save the Union or save herselt, she 
must arouse to instant action and hold no con- 
nection with any party in the North not pre- 
pared to enforce the guarantees of the Constitu- 
tion in favor of the South. 

He was a "strict constructionist," to use a 
phrase very familiar in those days as relating to 
slavery and the Constitution, but he was some- 
what inconsistent when other matters were in- 
volved. For instance, he was early one of the 
most ardent supporters of the policy of internal 
improvements. He projected a national road 
from Washington to New^ Orleans via Abing- 
don, Va., Knoxville, Tenn. ; thence through Ala- 
bama, passing near Cahawba, and so on to New 
Orleans. This, of course, was not a railroad, 
but a great national highway, the iron horse not 
then having made his appearance on the conti- 
nent. Among other of his schemes for the bind- 
ing of the Union together by arteries of com- 
merce were the opening of an inland navigation 
from New York to Savannah by a canal from 
New York to Philadelphia; the canal uniting the 
Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers ; a canal from 
Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac at Washington ; 
the Dismal Swamp Canal, uniting Chesapeake 
Bay with Albemarle Sound, and so on to Savan- 
nah ; the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, as a channel 
of commerce for the great West, and a national 
highway from Washington to Buffalo. All of 
these public improvements were on lines which 
in these later days would be regarded as strain- 
6 



82 STATESMEN 

ing the Constitution of the Republic rather se- 
verely. In 1825, in a speech to his neighbors 
at Abbeville, S. C, he said : " No man would 
reprobate more pointedly than myself any 
concerted union between States for interested 
or sectional objects. Such concert would be 
against the spirit of our Constitution, which was 
intended to bind all the States in one common 
bond of union and friendship." And yet only a 
few years after this he was pleading for a " con- 
certed union" which should defend slavery and 
put that institution so far above the flying ar- 
rows of its adversaries that it would be forever 
impregnable. 

A study of the history of statesmen often re- 
veals strange contradictions and startling changes 
in political opinions. For example, when prep- 
arations for the war of 1812 engaged the atten- 
tion of the younger politicians of South Carolina, 
the patriotic New Englanders were attracted by 
their boisterous patriotism, and the idea was en- 
tertained in both sections that it was possible to 
form a coalition between South Carc^lina and 
New England to put down the " Virginia Dv- 
nasty," as it vv'as called, whose narrow and anti- 
commercial policy had greatly annoyed both 
sections. And yet the time came when New 
England and South Carolina were virtually arm- 
ing themselves against each other and declaring 
a policy of non-intercourse. 

It is not certain whether Calhoun will be best 
known in history as the ardent defender of slav- 
ery or as the great nullifier. The States rights 



JOHN C. CALHOUN S3 

doctrine of Calhoun and his school was not, as 
its supporters maintained, necessarily secession 
or war, though it might lead eventually to both, 
as we have already seen. Calhoun insisted, with 
strange lack of logic, that the union of the States 
was really more secure by the establishment of 
his theory of States rights than it could be in 
any other way. The tariff of 1828 was extremely 
distasteful to the people of South Carolina, and 
the Calhoun school of politicians resolved that it 
should not be enforced. Calhoun's argument 
was that the State, having determined to protect 
its citizens by an act of nullification, would put 
an impassable barrier in the way of any penalty 
or sentence imposed by the Federal courts in 
consequence of an act of obedience to the State 
statute. Nullification was an act by the State 
nullifying within the borders of that State any 
law of the Federal Congress which might be dis- 
tasteful to a majority of the citizens of the State. 
Calhoun contended that nullification did not dis- 
turb the legal relation between the State and the 
Union, but rather confirmed it. He said that 
the States had " entered " the Federal Union and 
that that entrance implied a free action on their 
part without binding any of the States to irre- 
movable consequences thereafter. Force could 
not be employed by the Federal Government 
because the question was a moral one, and no 
ph3\sical resistance could be taken. 

The Legislature of South Carolina, in Novem- 
ber, 1832, i)assed an ordinance declaring the 
tariff act of 1828 null and void. It was also de- 



JOHN 0. CALHOUN 85 

clared that the payment of duties should not 
be enforced within the State, and that any at- 
tempt on the part of the Federal Government 
to enforce its laws would absolve the State from 
all connection with the Union and it would im- 
mediately establish a separate and independent 
government. Secession would ensue if nidlifi- 
cation were not agreed to by the Federal Gov- 
ernment. Great excitement in South Carolina 
followed the passage of this ordinance, and Pres- 
ident Jackson replied to it with a proclamation 
and a message to Congress threatening^o apply 
physical pressure to the rebels of the Palmetto 
State. It was even said (although this statement 
was never verified) that Jackson threatened to 
hang Calhoun " as high as Haman." Jackson 
was a bold and sometimes reckless officer, but 
nobody knew better than he that he had no 
power to hang even a rebel leader, and Calhoun's 
personal courage was certainly equal to any 
emergency, and it would be unjust to suppose 
that he was for a moment deterred from his 
course by any menace from General Jackson. 

Various expedients to dissolve the terrifying 
complication were proposed from the different 
States. While warlike operations were going 
on under the orders of President Jackson and 
General Scott, Clay introduced in Congress a 
new tariff which practically abandoned the 
policy of protection and conceded to South 
Carolina the principle for which she was con- 
tending. Peace was restored, and Calhoun and 
the nuUifiers consented to postpone secession. 



86 STATK^SMEN 

Clay's compromise bill, according to Thomas H. 
Benton, " made its first appearance in the House 
late in the evening, when members were gather- 
ing up their overcoats for a walk home to their 
dinners, was passed before their coats had got 
on their back, and the dinner which was waiting 
had but little time to cool before the astonished 
members, their work done, were at the table to 
eat it." South Carolina was appeased and the 
Union saved. 

One of the most picturesque incidents in the 
career of Calhoun was his final break with Pres- 
ident Jackson. Calhoun was a Cabinet minister 
during the Florida campaign, in which Jackson, 
as commander of the Federal forces, had carried 
things with a high hand. Without instructions, 
and without authority of law, he had conducted 
executions and had moved his troops in disre- 
gard of international law or usage. His course 
was severely criticised by the strict construc- 
tionists, but it commanded enthusiastic applause 
from the people of the United States. Years 
afterward, when Jackson was President and Cal- 
houn was serving a second term as Vice-Presi- 
dent, with an expectation of succeeding to the 
Presidency, the celebrated Eaton scandal broke 
out. Mrs. Eaton was the wife of Senator Eaton, 
of Tennessee, and by her light C(Miduct had 
brought scandal upon herself and her husband. 
The wives of Cabinet ministers and other high 
lunctionaries refused to recognize Mrs. Eaton. 
Among others, Vice-President Calhoun and Mrs. 
Calhoun fell under the ban of President Jack- 



JOHN G. CALHOUN 87 

son's displeasure, that functionary having en- 
deavored to dragoon Washington society into 
receiving Mrs. Eaton on terms of favor. With 
great rage and honest indignation, President 
Jackson regarded as his enemy every man who 
would not accept Mrs. Eaton. 

Unfortunately for the Vice-President, General 
Jackson about this time learned that Calhoun, 
when in the Cabinet, was one of those who 
strongly criticised General Jackson's reckless- 
ness in his operations against the Seminoles in 
Florida. Doubtless the General in this matter 
had acted in good faith, but President Monroe 
and the Cabinet, including Calhoun, did not agree 
with the view which Jackson then took of his 
own course. Calhoun insisted that the capture 
of Pensacola was an act of war against Spain 
and a violation of the Constitution, and that he 
had not only acted without but against his own 
instructions. Now (April, 1830) Calhoun's posi- 
tion on the Florida question was revealed to 
Jackson. This, added to the opposition of the 
Calhoun family in the matter of Mrs. Eaton, set 
Andrew Jackson in a towering rage. The breach 
with Jackson was irreparable. It was the death- 
blow of the Presidential aspirations of Calhoun, 
who, in the language of one of the historians of 
the period (William Wirt), " had blasted his pros- 
pects of future advancement forever." Jackson 
was thenceforth his bitterest foe, and every parti- 
cle of influence that he had was thrown against 
Calhoun and in favor eventually of Martin Van 
Buren. Von Hoist, in his account of this grand 



88 STATESMEN 

breaking-up, says : " Calhoun himself remained 
to the end of his life firmly convinced that Van 
Buren was the engineer who had constructed the 
ingenious battery for the explosion. Though 
there is no documentary proof of it, yet it can 
be hardly doubted that Van Buren did in fact 
take part in devising the scheme, but he was too 
wary and too cunning in such transactions ever 
to do himself what could be done as well or even 
better by some devoted friend." 

It may be said of Calhoun that after this alien- 
ation, which resulted in one of the bitterest dis- 
appointments of his life, he was in realit}- a 
party by himself. For even in his ardent and in- 
cessant defence of slavery and pitiless crusade 
against all who dared to wag their tongues 
against that institution, he did not always have 
with him the sympathy and support of the slave- 
holding politicians of his own section. He failed 
to see that resolutions and speeches, which he 
multiplied indefinitely, could not smother the 
volcanic fire that was slowly gathering head 
under the crust of Northern society. He seemed 
to think that these " words, words, words " ought 
in some way to silence the growing clamor of 
the North against the cherished institutions of 
the South. He lamented the destruction of the 
equipoise which had existed in the Senate be- 
tween the slave-holding States and the non-slave- 
holding States. With constant iteration he 
turned to this as the source of all his woes. To 
this single idea, the defence and elevation of sla- 
very, he remained true to the last. 



JOHN V. CALHOUN 89 

His health gradually failed, and though his eye 
did not lose its brilliancy or his intellectual force 
abate, it was plain that his days were numbered, 
and on the 4th of March, 1850, having been ab- 
sent from the Senate many weeks, he appeared 
in the chamber supported by his friends, who 
escorted him to his seat. The so-called compro- 
mise measures of 1850 were under discussion, and 
he asked permission of the Senate, being too 
feeble to deliver his address, that his friend, 
Senator Mason, of Virginia, should read it for 
him. The address was, in fact, only a recapitula- 
tion of what had been urged again and again in 
the South and by the Southern Senators on the 
floor, charging an aggression by the general gov- 
ernment and the North on the rights of the 
South, and insisting that the true purpose of the 
North was to destroy slavery in the States where 
it had existed since the original articles of con- 
federation were agreed to. " The strongest cord 
of a political character," he said, " consists of the 
many and strong ties that have held together the 
two great parties. If this agitation goes on, the 
same force, acting with increased intensity, will 
finally snap every cord, when nothing will be left 
to hold the States together except by force." 
His speech over, the great nullitier and de- 
fender of slavery, who had spent his latest 
breath for the preservation and perpetuation 
of slavery, withdrew. He died on the 31st of 
March, 1850. He was eulogized by Webster, 
Benton, and other distinguished statesmen who 
were his contemporaries. 



9<» STATESMEN 

From the day of his death until the Confed- 
erate flag fell at Appomattox the logical con- 
sequences of his life and teachings went on 
and on, increasing in force and intensity until 
the fabric that he had so laboriously reared 
fell in ruins. To the last moment he mani- 
fested the deepest interest and concern in the 
troubles of his country. " The South, the poor 
South, God knows what will become of her," 
murmured his trembling lips ; but he died with 
that serenity of mind which only a clear con- 
science can give on the death-bed. On Feb- 
ruary 12, 1847, he said in the Senate: "If I 
know myself, if my head were at stake I would 
do my duty, be the consequences what they 
might." It was his solemn conviction that 
throughout his life he had faithfully done his 
duty both to the Union and to his section. Be- 
cause as he honestly believed slavery to be good, 
"a positive good," he had never been able to see 
that it was impossible to serve at the same time 
the Union and his section. 




Thomas H. Benton. 



IV. 

THOMAS H. BENTON. 

In one of the public squares of the city of St. 
Louis there stands a bronze statue of Thomas H. 
Benton. The right hand points westward, and 
on the pedestal are inscribed these words : 

" There is the East. 
There is India." 

It is odd that so little is said by the biographers 
of Benton about his early, incessant, and active ef- 
forts to promote the building of a railway across 
the continent. He was one of the first statesmen 
of the country to advocate the building of such 
a road. He was one of the earliest to direct the 
adventurous explorations in the far West, and to 
encourage overland transit by wagon to the Pa- 
cific coast. He was engaged in these labors long 
before the discovery of gold in California. While 
the right of American possession of the mouth 
of the Columbia was as yet unsettled, he threw 
himself into the contest for the acquisition of 
that territory with tremendous zeal ; and as early 
as 1819 he wrote on all these topics. When he 
entered Congress, in 1820, he expounded his proj- 
ects for overland communication, and renewed 
his attempts to induce the Government to engage 
in the great enterprises of road-building and ex- 



92 STATESMEN 

ploration. In the pi^osecution of this work, he 
soiiglit out hunters, trappers, and vo3'ageiirs, and 
absorbed their information, pumped them dry of 
all the facts which they had acquired ; and as a 
more correct scientific knowledge of the unknown 
wilderness became accessible, his views took shape 
in the proposals that finally culminated in the 
building of the great Central Pacific Railroad. 

Of course, when the plans for building the 
Pacific Railroad were finally adopted, gold had 
been discovered in California, and the United 
States had secured a foothold upon those distant 
shores ; and Benton, with intense pride in his 
country, and more broad in his nationalitv than 
many of the statesmen of that period, did not 
stop to consider whether there should be a North- 
ern or a Southern trans-continental road, but he 
argued boldly for the proposed, central route 
which was subsequently adopted. He showed 
the character of the region through which this 
line should run, the ease by which the passes 
through the Rocky Mountains could be utilized, 
and he prophesied a great and rapid increase of 
States and communities as one of the results 
which would certainly follow the building of the 
road. In the course of one of his speeches, 
he made an interesting comparison of the courses 
of trade and commerce at different periods of 
the history of the world, and argued that, as 
we had finally reached the Pacific coast we had 
taken the position where our trade with the king- 
doms of the Orient would make us independent 
of Europe. 



TH03IAS H. BENTON 93 

Years before, when the Mississippi River 
seemed to be the most remote western border of 
our Republic, and when nobody had penetrated 
the boundless wilderness that stretches to the 
foot of the Rocky Mountains, and when nobody 
supposed we could ever people so vast a terri- 
tory as that which then lay unclaimed far to the 
westward, Benton had said that the Rocky Moun- 
tains should be our natural frontier line on the 
westward, a barrier beyond which we could not 
pass; and he had expressed his belief that on the 
Pacific coast there would grow up a friendly re- 
public. But when the discovery of gold and the 
acquisition of California changed all this, he, too, 
changed his view of the situation, and held that 
we should have, wherever possible, no boundaries 
but the two oceans. In considering the estab- 
lishment of the great marine lines across the 
Pacific Ocean debouching from California, we 
should never forget the prophetic words of Ben- 
ton, " There is India." 

Benton was pre-eminently a Western man. He 
possessed all the traits of the aggressive, alert, 
and self-asserting pioneers of the West. It was 
in the great community of which he formed so 
picturesque and towering a figure, that was orig- 
inated the once familiar phrase, " Manifest Des- 
tiny." Benton believed in the future vastness 
of his country, and with his boastful and some- 
times inflated oratory he forever preached the 
doctrine of Manifest Destiny. In every direc- 
tion wherever territory was to be acquired, to 
the southwest, westward, and northwest, there 



94 ffTATEl^MEN 

liis \()ict' was ever direeted, ringing and incit- 
ing to action and to acquisition the cheerful and 
ready ranks of his fellow-Westerners, 

It should be borne in mind that in the earlier 
years of Benton's time, all the territory lying 
westward of the Ohio, whether to the south or 
to the north, was known by the comprehensiv^e 
title of "The West." At that time the line of 
demarcation between the East and the West was 
far more distinct than that which separated the 
North from the South, and as the latter boundary 
became sharper and more intense, so did the line 
betwixt East and West become more vague 
and more distantly removed from the Eastern 
States. 

Benton not only favored the opening and ex- 
tension of lines of communication- with the wild 
and trackless Northwest, but also with Mexico 
and with the territories whicli we subsequently 
acquired by the Mexican war. He advocated 
the establishment of militar}' posts on the Upper 
Missouri, one of which is now known by his 
name. Fort Benton ; and throughout his career 
he incessantl}' pleaded for the cultivation of ami- 
cable relations with the Indian tribes, their re- 
moval to reservations where the}^ should be 
amply protected, and the development of the 
regions from which they had been taken. In- 
land navigation and great post roads, military 
roads, and trading trails to the far Southwest, 
were among his hobbies, of which it must be 
confessed he had many. The treaty with Spain 
by which we secured Florida and other acquisi- 



THOMAS II. BENTON 95 

tions were matters that greatly cheered the soul 
of Benton, even before he entered the Senate. 
In one of his speeches when the Florida pur- 
chase was under consideration he said : " The 
magnificent valley of the Mississippi is ours, 
with all its fountains, springs, and floods, and woe 
to the statesman who shall undertake to surren- 
der one drop of its water, one inch of its soil, to 
any foreign power." We can well understand 
how these brave words fell with kindling effect 
among the masterful and ambitious Westerners. 
Benton was born in North Carolina, and his 
mother, early left a widow, took her young brood 
of children to a tract of land owned by her hus- 
band, twenty-five miles south of Nashville. On 
this land the family plantation was laid out, and 
in due course of time " Widow Benton's tract" 
became Bentontown, a name under which it is 
known to this day. " Here Thomas Hart Benton 
was reared under the tender care and firai man- 
agement of his mother, a woman of the highest 
type. In the library left by his father the lad 
found a goodly array of the best books of that 
period. These he studied with a devouring 
eagerness, and he has said in his autobiography 
that his knowledge of English history was largely 
drawn from the voluminous " State Trials " which 
formed a part of this library. Benton's educa- 
tion does not appear to have been at any time 
directed by any other guidance than his own 
tastes and notions of what was desirable, except 
when, later on, under the encouragement of older 
friends, he mastered the intricacies of the law 






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.f : 












•^ r, », 







^^. 



■v^tH^ Hi? -^^fci 

-.^--^-w^'l r; ;^-^^-T«^^,' 






THOMAS H. BENTON 97 

and was admitted to the bar. Of his mother he 
says in his autobiography : " All the minor virt- 
ues, as well as the greater, were cherished by 
her, and her house, the resort of the eminent 
men of the time, was the abode of temperance, 
modesty, decorum ; a pack of cards was never 
seen in her house. From such a mother all the 
children received the impress of future character, 
and she lived to see the fruits of her pious and 
liberal cares — living as a widow above fifty years 
— and to see her eldest son half through his 
Senatorial career and taking his place among the 
historic men of the country, for which she had 
begun so early to train him. These details de- 
serve to be noted, though small in themselves, as 
showing how much the after life of the man may 
depend upon the early care and guidance of a 
mother." Benton lived a temperate and abste- 
mious life ; he was a total abstainer from his 
youth, never used tobacco, never played a game 
of chance, and did not as a rule attend public 
amusements. When questioned about his tem- 
perate habits, later in life, he used to say : " My 
mother did not wish me to drink wine or spirits, 
and I never have." 

In his autobiography, referring to his wife, 
who was long an invalid, he said : " Mrs. Benton 
died in 1854, having been struck with paralysis in 
1844, and from the time of that calamity her hus- 
band was never known to go to any place of fes- 
tivity or amusement." His literary work, which 
was great and laborious, was done at her bedside 
during these years of pain and languishing. 
7 



1)S STA TKSMEN 

But there was another side to Benton's char- 
acter. He lived in a time of turbulence, and a 
certain warlike roughness then pervaded all 
ranks of society in the West. His first notable 
quarrel was with Andrew Jackson in the streets 
of Nashville, Tenn. His brother Jesse and Will- 
iam Carroll had become involved in a duel. 
Jackson was Carroll's second, and although no 
blood was shed in the duel, the two Bentons, 
Carroll, and Jackson and some of their friends, 
were drawn into a disgraceful fracas. Jackson 
advanced upon Colonel Benton and struck him 
over the head with a riding-whip. A general iiic/cc 
followed, pistols and knives were freely used, 
and Jackson came out of this promiscuous con- 
test with a bullet in his left shoulder. Later, in 
St. Louis, while Missouri was yet a Territory, 
and Benton was editing a paper and slashing 
around recklessly in every direction, he was 
drawn into a more serious quarrel with one 
Lucas. The result was a duel, in which Lucas 
was killed. They had fought twice on Bloody 
Island, near St. Louis, a well-known duelling re- 
sort. On the first occasion both were wounded ; 
on the second, Lucas fell. A biographer of 
Lucas's family has recently remarked, with un- 
conscious humor, of the senior Lucas: "This 
gentleman was one of the most remarkable men 
who ever settled west of the Mississippi River. 
Toward the close of his life -Judge 
Lucas became melancholy and dejected, the re- 
sult of domestic affliction, lor six' ol his sons met 
death b)" violence." It is barely possible that 



THOMAS H. BENTON 99 

the five sons, of whom we have no other mention, 
came to their deaths by quarrels provoked. 

At that time dueUing was common through- 
out the United States, more especially in the 
South and West, and on the frontier a man was 
not only expected to be called to engage in a 
duel as principal or second occasionally, but 
also to challenge whenever he considered his 
" honor " called in question. 

The affray with Jackson was in 1813, and in 
his autobiography (dictated when Benton was 
on his death-bed, in which he speaks of himself 
in the third person) the writer referred to the 
Nashville fracas with profound regret, and 
added : " A duel at St. Louis ended fatally, of 
which Colonel Benton has not been heard to 
speak except among intimate friends, and to tell 
of the pang which went through his heart when 
he saw the young man fall, and would have given 
the world to see him restored to life. As the 
proof of the manner in which he looks upon all 
these scenes, and his desire to bury all remem- 
brance of them forever, he has had all those 
papers burnt which relate to them, that future 
curiosity or industry should not bring to light 
what he wishes had never happened." 

The bringing in of Missouri as a slave State, 
with human bondage expressly provided for in 
its constitution, caused an intense excitement 
throughout the country. It was this act which 
resulted in the adoption of what was known as 
the "Missouri Ccompromisc." Although BcMiton 
was himself averse to the further extension of 



100 STATESMEN 

slavery, he did not hesitate to advocate the ad- 
mission of the new State with slavery in its con- 
stitution, and doubtless his newspaper was a tre- 
mendous factor in the problem which was solved 
by the final admission of the State. 

He was now elected to the Senate, and al- 
though some details of the constitution of the 
new State remained unsettled, he at once took 
his seat. In the somewhat self-conscious auto- 
biography which I have just quoted, Benton 
thus speaks of his election to the Senate: " From 
that time his life was in the public eye, and the 
bare enumeration of the measures of which he 
was author and the prime promoter would be al- 
most a history of Congress legislation. The 
enumeration is unnecessary here. The long list 
is known throughout the length and breadth of 
the land, repeated with the familiarity of house- 
hold words from the great cities of the seaport 
to the lonely cabins of the frontier, and studied 
by the little boys who feel an honorable ambi- 
tion beginning to stir within their bosoms and a 
laudable desire to know something of the history 
of their country." It is melancholy to reflect 
that although scarcely three-quarters of a cen- 
tury has passed, "the little boys" of whom Ben- 
ton speaks with so much assurance probably 
know very little of " the measures of which he 
was author." 

In the Senate, which he entered in 1820, he 
served thirty consecutive years. His talents, 
which were very great, and his energies, whicli 
were tremendous, were devoted to an infinite 



THOMAS H. BENTON 101 

variety of useful measures. The land laws of 
the country early engaged his attention. A pio- 
neer himself, he devoted all his activities to re- 
forming the statutes and to facilitate the means 
by which public lands could be occupied and 
owned by actual settlers. He advocated the 
securing to all actual settlerj of land title by pre- 
emption, a periodical reduction of prices after 
the lands had been a long time in market, and 
donations of homesteads to worthy and indus- 
trious persons who might be too poor to buy. 
With a dogged persistence peculiarly his own, 
Benton forced his views upon these subjects 
upon Congress year in and year out, in season 
and out of season. He lived to see nearly every 
one of these principles finally adopted into the 
land system of the United States, with the ex- 
ception of the homestead law, which was passed 
by both houses of Congress and vetoed by Bu- 
chanan. That law, however, finally became op- 
erative in 1862, during the administration of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The system of electing President and Vice- 
President by the so-called Electoral College was 
another topic which early engaged his attention. 
He advocated in 1824 an amendment to the Con- 
stitution to abolish the Electoral College and to 
make the vote more nearly come straight from 
the people. On this topic he said : " I should 
esteem the incorruptibility of the people, their 
disinterested desire to get the best man for Pres- 
ident, to be more than a counterpoise to all the 
advantages which might be derived from the 



102 STATESMEN 

superior intelligence of a more enlightened but 
smaller and therefore more corruptible body. I 
should be opposed to the intervention of electors, 
because the double process to elect a man would 
paralyze the spirit of the people and destroy 
the life of an election itself. Doubtless this ma- 
chinery was introduced into our Constitution for 
the purpose of softening the action of the demo- 
cratic element, but it also softens the interest of 
the people in the result of the election itself. It 
places them at too great a distance from their 
first servant. It interposes a body of men be- 
tween the people and the object of their choice 
and gives a false direction to the gratitude of the 
President elected. He feels himself indebted to 
the electors who collected the votes of the peo- 
ple, and not to the people who gave their votes 
to the electors." Our later experience in politi- 
cal affairs has shown that Benton in this case 
was partly right and partly wrong. 

Very much to his credit, too, was his attitude 
on what was called the Spoils System. In his 
autobiography he makes it a point to say that 
none of his blood relations had ever asked for 
ofihce and none had ever mingled in any schemes 
for the division of patronage. During Jackson's 
time was imported into the system of national 
government the plan of making public office a 
reward for partisan service. Benton, later in 
life, said : " The expiration of the foui" years' term 
came to be considered as the termination and 
vacation of all the offices on which it fell and the 
creation of vacancies, to be filled at the option of 



THOMAS H. BENTON 1<»3 

the President." He added : " I consider sweep- 
ing removals as now practised by both parties a 
great political evil in our country, injurious to 
individuals, to the public service, to the purity 
of elections, and to the harmony and union of the 
people. ... It converts elections into scram- 
bles for office and degrades the Government into 
an office for rewards and punishments, and di- 
vides the people of the Union into two adverse 
parties, each in its turn as it becomes dominant 
to strip and proscribe the other." 

Although a slave-holder from a slave State, 
Benton, with his broad-minded and generous 
instincts, could not look with any degree of tol- 
erance upon the extension of slavery into the 
Territories, and when John C. Calhoun began to 
proclaim his fine-spun theory of State rights and 
the right of nullification, Benton was by the side 
of Andrew Jackson battling for the Union and 
opposing nullification. His attitude in this long 
and arduous contest made him the life-long foe 
of Calhoun, who, thougfli he foro-ave others who 
fought against him, notably Clay and Webster, 
the two Whigs, could not forgive Benton, the 
Jacksonian Democrat. When the project to an- 
nex Texas came before the people of the United 
States, Benton raised his voice against the 
scheme. He boldly and forcibly disclosed the 
real motives of the ])romoters of this great en- 
terprise, and said that althongh rt was mixed up 
with speculative jobs and political intrigues, dis- 
union was at the bottom of it all. He said that 
the crv had already been raised : " Texas without 



104 STATESMEN 

the Union rather than the Union without Tex- 
as," and he said that "a Southern confederacy 
stretching from the Atlantic to the Californias 
is the cherished vision of disappointed ambition.'' 

He was with Jackson also in his war upon the 
United States Bank, and early in 1831 he had 
moved against a recharter of that institution, 
thus showing himself really in advance of Jack- 
son in his hostility to the bank. He did not 
assail the bank as unconstitutional, but rather 
dwelt upon the aspects of the case which would 
be more likely to attract public attention. He 
said that the bank had too much power over the 
people and the Government, over business and 
over politics, and was too much disposed to exer- 
cise that power to the prejudice of freedom and 
equality which should prevail in a republic. 

He said : " I am willing to see the charter ex- 
pire without providing any substitute for the 
present bank. I am willing to see the currency 
of the Federal Government left to the hard 
money mentioned and intended in the Constitu- 
tion." Again he said : " Gold and silver are the 
best currency for a republic. It suits the men of 
middle property and the working-people best, 
and if I was going to establish a workingman's 
party it should be on the basis of hard money — 
a hard-money party against a paper party." Ut- 
terances like these, which attracted wide atten- 
tion both in this country and in Europe, gave 
him the nickname of " Old Bullion," a title by 
which he was known to the day of his death. 
One of Benton's darling pi^ojects was the devel- 



IOC) STATESMEN 

opment of what is called the Sub-Treasury sys- 
tem of the Uuited States. it was hrst made 
known under the title ot the inde[)endent Treas- 
ury Bill. He succeeded in getting it through 
the Senate twice. The first time it was lost in 
the House of Representatives, but on the sec- 
ond venture, toward the close of President Van 
Buren's term, his firmness and pertinacity were 
rewarded. The bill passed the Senate by a con- 
siderable majorit}', went through the House after 
a bitter contest, and became a law. From this 
arose the system which to the present day is 
satisfactorily known as the Sub-Treasur}'. 

Another of his hobbies (if a statesman's views 
can be called a hobby) was the repeal of the salt 
tax.. The Government laid an odious tax upon 
salt, and while he devoted himself to the general 
subject of the tariff in regard to specific abuses, 
he advocated with great persistence the plan of 
making salt free ; and on all occasions, whether 
pertinent or not, with dogged persistence he 
lugged in the salt tax and insisted upon its repeal. 
In his " Thirty Years' View," speaking of him- 
self and his attacks on this odious duty, he says: 
" He called it a heartless and tyrant tax, as inex- 
orable as it was omnipotent and omnipresent; a 
tax wdiich no economy could avoid, no poverty 
could shun, no privation escape, no cimning 
elude, no force resist, no dexterity avert, no 
curses repulse, no prayers could deprecate." 
To this he added : " Twelve years have passed 
away, two years more than the siege of Troy 
lasted, since I began this contest. Nothing dis- 



THOMAS IT. JIENTON 107 

heartened bv so man\- defeats in su loni^ a time, 
I prosecute the war with unabated vigor, and 
relying upon the goodness of the cause, firmly 
calculate upon ultimate and final success." One 
cannot help thinking that although the tax was 
odious and doubtless oppressive, the eloquence, 
erudition, and legal learning lavished upon at- 
tempts to abolish it were hardly in proportion 
to the extent of the evil complained of. 

Benton not only loved work for work's sake, 
but his spirit was indomitable, defiant, and ag- 
gressive. He was simply unable to comprehend 
the meaning of the word " defeat." Repulsed 
again and again, he returned to the attack with 
a freshness and vigor that bore all before it. His 
will was iron, his purpose inflexible, and doubt- 
less a great proportion of the successes in his 
long and stormy career were due to his persist- 
ence rather than to the intrinsic merits of the 
cause advocated. His support of the Sub-Treas- 
ury scheme and its ultimate success is one ex- 
ample of his triumph after many defeats, and 
his magnificent and picturesque crusade at the 
head of the so-called expungers is another. Jack- 
son was not willing to rest on his laurels when 
he had succeeded in defeating all attempts to re- 
charter the United States Bank, but in the sum- 
mer of 1833 he ordered the deposits of the United 
States Government removed from the bank and 
placed in certain State banks. These institutions 
were subsequently known as the " pet banks." 
Jackson met with some difificulty in getting a 
Secretary of the Treasury who would venture 



108 STATESMEN 

upon such a step, but he finally found one in 
Roger B. Taney, a man who afterward, as Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, was able to do much more mischief than 
he did as Secretary of the Treasury. A tre- 
mendous storm broke out in Congress over the 
removal of the deposits. Clay introduced a res- 
olution directing their return. This was defeated 
in the House, and Clay then introduced in the 
Senate a series of motions, the most important of 
which was his famous resolution censuring Pres- 
ident Jackson for his action in regard to the de- 
posits. This resolution was finally passed by a 
small majority, and Jackson, frantic with rage, 
sent in a written protest, which the Senate re- 
fused to receive. The country was agitated, the 
Jacksonians and anti-Jacksonians furiously assail- 
ing each other over the question. Benton imme- 
diately began a vigorous campaign for the ex- 
punging of the resolution of censure from the 
record of the Senate. He was met with an oppo- 
sition quite as vigorous as his own, headed by 
Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. Finally, at the very 
close of Jackson's administration, Benton found 
himself able to make the move wdiich Avas carried 
to a prosperous conclusion. The Expungers held 
a caucus and agreed to prevent any adjournment 
until the resolution of expunging was finall}- car- 
ried. Benton, like the prudent general that he 
was, provided in one of the committee rooms 
" an ample supply of cold hams, turkeys, rounds 
of beef, pickles, wines, and cups of hot coffee," to 
which the faint-hearted and weary Expungers oc- 



THOMAS H. BENTON 109 

casionally resorted to refresh themselves withal ; 
and at last the Secretary of the Senate was or- 
dered by resolution to draw black lines around 
the offensive entry in the Senate journal. Jack- 
son, to show his gratitude and appreciation of 
the services of the Expungers, gave them and 
their wives a great dinner at the White House, 
Benton sitting at the head of the table. 

The really heroic era of Benton's long career 
was that in which he fought for the National 
Union and defended the Republic against the 
insidious schemes of the nullifiers and secession- 
ists. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had ex- 
pressly excluded slavery from the territory from 
which Kansas and Nebraska were afterward 
carved. When the bill to repeal this compromise 
came up in the Senate, Benton attacked it with 
enormous vigor, characterizing it as "a bungling 
attempt to smuggle slavery into the territory and 
throughout all the country up to the Canada line 
and out to the Rocky Mountains." By the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, slavery and freedom 
were left to shift for themselves in the vast re- 
gion now occupied by all of the States west and 
north of Missouri. The compromise, Benton 
contended, was right, but no greater concession 
of principle should be made. The time had now 
come, he said, when the extension of slavery 
should be opposed in every constitutional way, 
and " it was an outrage to repeal a compromise 
which in its very nature was humiliating to the 
North." Said he : " The South divided and took 
half, and now it will not do to claim the other half." 



no STATESMEN 

A<i,-ainsl this insidious a^-o-icssion of the slave 
j)o\ver, Hcnton spoke with great l)oldness and 
warmth. He said: " I have stood upon the Mis- 
souri Compromise tor about thirty years, and 
mean to stand upon it to the end of my life. It 
is a binding covenant upon both i)arties, and the 
more so uj)on the South, as she imposed it." 

Benton's noble and manly tight was in vain. 
He incurred the imj)lacable hostility of the slave 
power of the South and of its leaders in the Sen- 
ate. His patriotic and determined attitude tinal- 
ly cost him his seat in the Senate, and from this 
point onward, we may say, the tide ran against 
him. His enemies, in the midst of his fight against 
the extension of slavery into the Territories, cir- 
culated a series of resolutions which w^ere based 
upon those of Calhoun, declaring that Congress 
had no power over the question of slaverv in the 
Territories. These were sent to all of the slave- 
holding States, and were finallv introduced into 
the Missouri Legislature. The Missouri resolu- 
tions were insolent and almost traitorous in tone, 
and demanded that slavery should be permitted 
to exist in all new States hereafter to be admitted, 
and instructed their Senators t(^ vote according- 
ly. When these resolutions came to Congress, 
where they were introduced bv Benton's col- 
league, Atchison, thev were boldly denounced 
by Benton as treasonable and offensive in the 
highest degree. He said that they did not ex- 
press the true opinions of the voters of Missouri, 
and he w^ould appeal from the Legislature to the 
people. Benton's colleague was subsequently 



THOMAS IT. BENTON 111 

known as " Dave " Atchison, and was one oi the 
leadei"s of the border riififians who invaded Kansas 
in the early and st(jrmy da\'s of that Territory. 

But Benton's protests were in vain. The issue 
between the two sides, " the Hards," as Benton's 
followers were called, and " the Softs," was now 
sharply defined. Benton went home to Mis- 
souri, stumped the State from one end to the 
other, and in a series of many wonderful speeches 
advocated the doctrines which he had proclaimed 
in the Senate and which had been contravened 
so contemptuously by the Legislature of the 
State. Neither faction was able to secure a ma- 
jority of the Legislature which was to have the 
duty of electing a successor to Benton, whose 
term was about to expire ; and, after a deadlock 
lasting some weeks, the Whigs went to the sup- 
port of the " Softs " and elected Benton's oppo- ■ 
nent; and so, after serving the State and the 
Nation faithfully for thirty years in the United 
States Senate, Benton was turned out for hav- 
ing stood manfully and loyally by the Union. 

It is impossible to avoid a comparison at this 
point between Benton and some of the Northern 
Senators, notably Silas Wright, of New York, and 
Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts. A Southern 
man from a slave-holding State, Benton did not 
hesitate to. oppose the extension of slavery into 
the Territories, to condemn the fugitive slave 
act of 1850, and to stand manfully and effectively 
against the slavery extremists and disunionists. 
He rose to meet every emergency, and up to the 
latest hour of his Congressional life could always 



112 STATESMEN 

be counted upon in the ranks of the devoted 
patriots who defended the Union and its institu- 
tions of freedom. 

When defeated for the Senate, he was not in 
the least cast down by this apparently over- 
whelming reverse. Although now an old man, 
he kept up the fight as bitterly as ever, and in 
1852 was returned to the House of Representa- 
tives as a Union Democrat. Defeated for a sec- 
ond term in the House, he took the field, indefati- 
gable as ever, as a Union Democratic candidate 
for Governor of Missouri. The fight was a tri- 
angular one. The Native Americans, or Know 
Nothings, had set their candidate in the field ; the 
secession Democrats another; and Benton was 
the choice of the Union Democrats. Although 
seventy-four years old, his mind was as vigorous 
as ever, and with all the freshness and buoyancy 
of his early manhood he plunged into one of the 
most strenuous and exhaustive political fights of 
his lifetime. During the course of his campaign 
he traversed the entire State, travelling in all 
twelve hundred miles and making forty speeches, 
each one of which was two or three hours in 
length. Again, however, he was destined to 
meet with defeat. The vote was quite evenl}- di- 
vided among the three candidates, but Benton 
was the third in the race, and the extreme pro- 
slavery men elected their candidate by a small 
plurality. At last his political race was run. 

Very soon after he lost his seat in the House 
of Representatives, he set out to finish his " Thirty 
Years' View," a work of the first importance 



THOMAS H. BENTON 113 

in political history, which he had undertaken 
while in the Senate. He now returned to this, 
and took it up with refreshing zest. This com- 
pleted, he tackled another task, an " Abridgment 
of the Debates of Congress ; " and when his house 
burned down, destroying his materials and partly 
completed volumes, he resumed his labor next 
day as though nothing had happened. It was 
this spirit of unconquerableness that carried him 
through his strenuous and stormy career with so 
long a train of successes following. 

In 1856 he voted, like the sturdy old partisan 
he was, for James Buchanan, although his son-in- 
law, John C. Fremont, whom he greatly admired, 
was candidate against Buchanan. Benton took 
much pride in Fremont's achievements and in his 
courageous and dashing expeditions. In his 
" Thirty Years' View " he finds it impossible 
to conceal his amusement and satisfaction over 
the fact that his daughter, Mrs. Fremont, sup- 
pressed orders countermanding Fremont's second 
expedition in 1844. Fremont had left his home 
in Missouri when these orders arrived from the 
War Department, and Mrs. Fremont, opening 
the dispatches, as requested by her husband 
on his departure, saw that if they were for- 
warded, Fremont would be obliged to return. 
She withheld them, with the knowledge and 
warm approval of her father. Benton, speaking 
of this (to him) amusing incident, said that " this 
hinderance should be charged to the account 
of West Point officers, to whose pursuit of easy 
service Fremont's adventurous expeditions were 



lU STATEtiMEN 

a reproach." Benton, it should be said, h^st no 
opportunity to j^ibe the West Pointers, whom he 
hated with a perfect hatred. He had himself 
been commissioned in the United States army 
and had served as lieutenant-colonel in the war 
of 1812, when he was an aide-de-camp to General 
Jackson. Some of Benton's attacks upon the 
army and navy, both of which had within his 
lifetime covered themselves with glory in our 
contests with Great Britain, were inspired by 
partisan prejudice rather than any sound objec- 
tion to the little navy and army then maintained 
at the expense of the Government. He ridiculed 
every measure designed to promote the efficiency 
of either branch of the public service, and in- 
sisted upon a reduction of both arms of the ser- 
vice to what he called " a peace footing." 

Posterity should not lose sight of Benton's 
wise and prophetic estimate of the growth of the 
Republic in the Northwest. When our dispute 
over the Northwestern boundary began, it was 
urged that the region demanded bv Benton and 
his supporters was not valuable for tillage or for 
mining. Benton tartly replied : " We want it. any- 
how ; " and when imminence of war with Great 
Britain was urged by the more timcjrous mem- 
bers of the Senate, he flung out this note of de- 
fiance : " I think she will take offence, d(j what 
we may in relation to this territory. She wants 
it hersell, and means to ([iiarre] loi" it if she does 
not fight for it. . . . Ncithei" nations nor 
individuals ever escape danger b\' fearing it; 
they must face it, and defy it. An abandonment 



Vi 







mil « k V 'A¥ /]3^^ 








$ 



^^^%jA^I|l[ " , I: \ * , ^ '^^'%ni 



The Benton Statue at St. Louis. 



116 STATESMEN 

of a right for fear of brintring on an attack, in- 
stead of keeping it off, will inevitably bring on 
the outrage that is dreaded." This was while 
the Nation was still harassed by the progress 
of the Texas annexation scheme in the South- 
west. James K. Polk was elected on the basis 
of a settlement with England which should give 
us as our northern boundary fifty-four degrees 
and forty minutes, the slogan of his campaign 
being " 54-40, or fight." History records, how- 
ever, that in the final settlement of that problem 
our boundary-line on the north was fixed at 49, 
by which we lost the magnificent territory now 
occupied by Manitoba, the Northwest Territory, 
and British Columbia, thereby interposing a for- 
eign power between our own possessions and 
those which we have since acquired from Russia. 
It should be said that Benton acquiesced in this 
settlement without much ado. 

Benton was not a great orator, as Webster 
was, but he was a powerful pleader and an in- 
domitable spirit, and his nature was cast in a 
heroic mould. Like most of the public speakers 
of his time, he affected classic allusion and plen- 
tifully interlarded his speeches with references to 
the ancients. He had a great fondness for a bar- 
barous phrase of his own invention which he 
called the " principle demos kratco^ This phrase, 
which he had borrowed from the Greek, he used 
and misused on every possible occasion in speak- 
ing and in writing. Like others of his time, he 
drew copiously from Greek and Roman history 
to illustrate his meaning ; as we have seen, the 



THOMAS H. BENTON 117 

Trojan war was made use of by way of illustrat- 
ing his light against the salt tax. 

One of his biographers (Roosevelt) has paid 
to Benton this just tribute, with which this im- 
perfect sketch may very properly be concluded : 
" He was a faithful friend and a bitter foe. He 
was vain, proud, utterly fearless, and quite un- 
able to comprehend such emotions as are ex- 
pressed by the terms despondency and yielding. 
Without being a great orator or writer, or even 
an original thinker, he yet possessed marked 
ability, and his abounding vitality and marvel- 
lous memory, his indomitable energy and indus- 
try, and his tenacious persistency and personal 
courage, all combined to give him a position and 
influence such as few American statesmen have 
ever held. His character grew steadily to the 
very last. He made better speeches and was 
better able to face new problems when past 
three-score and ten than in his early youth or 
middle age. He possessed a rich fund of politi- 
cal, legal, and historical learning, and every sub- 
ject that he ever handled showed traces of care- 
ful and thorough study. He was ever courteous 
except when provoked. His courage was proof 
against all fear, and he shrank from no contest, 
personal or political. He was sometimes narrow- 
minded, and always wilful and passionate, but 
he was honest and truthful. At all times and in 
all places he held every good gift he had com- 
pletely at the service of the American Federal 
Union." 

Benton died in the city of Washington in 1858, 



118 STATESMEN 

to his latest breath, and while he could scarcely 
speak above a whisper, keeping up his laborious 
habits. In these last dying moments he dictated 
the autobiographical sketch which has been re- 
ferred to in the early part of this chapter, and 
died leaving his " Abridgment of Debates " in- 
complete. 




''W''^-" 'y^^P^^^^?^^' 



%■ ^ x/^j 



William H. Seward, 



V. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Young men will read with sympathy William 
H. Seward's account of his first striking out for 
himself, at the age of seventeen. His father was 
a gentleman of education, some wealth, and high 
social and political position, in Central New 
York. Harry Seward, as he was called in his 
boy hood,, was sent to Union College, Schenec- 
tady. A disagreement between Harry and his fa- 
ther arose out of some financial matters. Young 
Seward complained, in his own account of this 
affair, written many years afterward, that the 
more rigid his economy, the more limited was the 
appropriation for his expenses. Finally, the mis- 
understanding was increased, as he says, " by the 
intrusion of the accomplished tailors of Schenec- 
tady," whose bills his father thought were unrea- 
sonable ; and as the lad could not submit to the 
shame of loss of credit, he resolved upon inde- 
pendence and self-maintenance. Accordingly, on 
the first of January, 1819, without any notice to 
his father or anyone else, he left Union College, 
as he thought forever, and went to New York by 
stage-coach, where he took passage with a fellow- 
student for Savannah. After an uneventful voy- 
age of seven days from New York, the vessel 



120 STATESMEN 

anchored in the river at Savannah, and he rode 
by stage wagon to Augnsta, where he hired a 
ofiof, which landed him at Mount Zion, and he 
was among friends from Orange County, N. Y. 
Not being any longer able to hire a conveyance, 
he took the road on foot to Eatonton, the capital 
of Putnam County, Ga. ; he soon found himself 
with nine shillings and sixpence, New York cur- 
rency, soiled with the wear of travel, and almost 
unable to resume his journey ; but he finally made 
his way to Eatonton, where he met the treasurer 
of the State, who was one of the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Union Academy of Eatonton. After 
a cursory examination of the young man, the 
Directors agreed to accept him as preceptor of 
the new institution at the munificent sinn of one 
hundred dollars a year and his board. As the 
academy was not yet finished, the directors 
agreed to compensate him for the delay by fur- 
nishing him with a horse and carriage in which 
he could travel in any part of the State, and in 
the interval he was to be boarded among the 
directors without charge. This important mat- 
ter being disposed of, one of the directors of the 
institution said : " I am going to state some- 
thing which, if you prefer, you need not reply. 
In your absence from the meeting of trustees 
they asked how old you were. I answered that 
I thought you were twenty. The}^ replied that 
that seemed very young for such an enterprise." 
Mr. Seward says in his account of this incident : 
" I candidly confessed to my generous patron 
that I was only seventeen." " Well," said he, 



WILLIAM n. SEWARD 121 

"we will leave them to find that out for them- 
selves." 

In brief, then, Harry Seward had run away 
from home to undertake the management of the 
Union College at Eatonton, Ga., where, as he 
fondly hoped, he was concealed from the pur- 
suit of his family. He was very much dismayed, 
however, by the intelligence that a packet of let- 
ters had been transmitted to Richardson, Presi- 
dent of the United States Branch Bank at Sa- 
vannah, from the paternal Seward, at Florida, 
N. Y. , in which was a letter from the father to 
the son describing the paternal anguish and so- 
licitude caused by the young fellow's flight from 
college and from home. The senior Seward im- 
plored his wandering boy to return, and he sent 
the necessary funds to pay his expenses and for 
the bills that he had incurred in the meantime. 
Young Seward sent his father an Eatonton news- 
paper which contained an advertisement an- 
nouncing to the people of the State of Georgia 
that " William H. Seward, a gentleman of talents, 
educated at Union College, N. Y., had been du- 
ly appointed principal of the Union Academy," 
etc. His indignant father, having read the 
newspaper advertisement, informed the presi- 
dent and trustees of the college who and what 
kind of a person this new principal of their acad- 
emy was; that "he was a much-indulged son 
who, without just cause and provocation, had ab- 
sconded from Union College, thereby disgracing 
a well-acquired position and plunging his parents 
into profound shame and grief." The upshot of 



122 STATESMEN 

this business was that young Seward, a few weeks 
later, returned to college, and in due course was 
graduated with all the honors. 

It was during these six months in Georgia that 
he first came in contact with Southern slavery. 
In his " Autobiography," he says : " Although the 
planters were new and generally poor, 3'et I think 
the slaves exceeded the white population." No 
jealousy or prejudice at that day was manifested 
in regard to inquiries or discussions of slavery, 
but at the same time there were two kindred 
popular prejudices highly developed. One was 
a suspicion, amounting to hatred, of all emanci- 
pated persons, or free negroes, as they were 
called. The other a strong prejudice of an ab- 
stract nature against the lower class of adventur- 
ers from the North, called ' Yankees.' The plant- 
ers entertained me always cordially, as it seemed 
from a regard to my acquirements, while the 
negroes availed themselves of every occasion to 
converse with a stranger who came from ' the big 
North,' where they understood their race to be 
free, but which they believed to be so far distant 
as to be forever inaccessible to them." Seward 
gained the confidence and esteem of the negroes 
without exciting any jealousy on the part of their 
masters. The effect of his observations, he says, 
was to confirm and strengthen the opinions he 
had already entertained adverse to slavery. 

It should be said that in his childhood slavery 
had not yet been abolished in the State of New 
York. He early discovered in his own home 
that, besides his parents, brothers, and sisters. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD 123 

all of whom occupied the i)arlor and principal 
bedrooms of the mansion, there were in the 
family two black women and one black boy, who 
remained exclusive tenants of the kitchen and 
the garret over it. The lad found their apart- 
ment much more attractive than the parlor, and 
their conversation a relief from the severe de- 
corum that there prevailed. He knew that 
these people were black, but he did not know 
why, and if his parents ever uttered before him 
a word of disapproval of slavery, there was cer- 
tainly nothing that he ever heard that made him 
think the negroes inferior to the white person. 
The two younger of his father's slaves attended 
school and sat by his side if they chose, but he 
noticed that no other black children went there. 
Later on in life, after Seward had taken to 
himself a wife and was on a tour through North- 
ern Virginia, in 1835, he saw this spectacle at 
a country tavern where he had arrived just at 
sunset : " A cloud of dust was seen slowly com- 
ing down the road, from which proceeded a con- 
fused noise of moaning, weeping, and shouting. 
Presently reaching the gate of the stable-yard, 
it disclosed itself. Ten naked little boys, be- 
tween six and twelve years old, tied together 
two and two by their wrists, were all fastened to 
a long rope and followed by a tall, gaunt white 
man, who with his long lash whipped up the sad 
and weary procession, drove it to the horse- 
trough to drink, and thence to a shed, where 
they lay down on the ground and sobbed and 
moaned themselves to sleep. These were chil- 



124 STATES3rEN 

dren gathered iij» at different plantations h\ the 
trader, and were to be driven down to Riehniond 
to be sold at auction and taken South." This 
piteous scene made an impression indelible in 
the mind of Seward. 

It was on this same journey, when homeward 
bound, that Seward and his wife passed through 
Washington, where he was permitted an infor- 
mal interview with President Jackson, of whom 
he received a vivid impression. Jackson's man- 
ner was courtly but dogmatic, and he said of 
him : " On every subject, of whatever magnitude, 
the President was peremptory, and it must be 
added that, as far as his opinions were expressed, 
they were intelligent and perspicuous." As I 
have said, Seward's circumstances were easy. 
He early learned to save from his professional 
earnings. He never lived extravagantly, but 
hospitably, to spend freely and give liberally. 
He was considered aristocratic in his tastes and 
pursuits, and was certainly brought up in an 
atmosphere of refinement and culture somewhat 
unusual to those early times. His tastes were 
literary, and although he naturally took to poli- 
tics as soon as he had arrived at the yeai^s of 
manhood, his pursuits were always scholarly 
and refined. His versatility was early a marked 
characteristic, and he seemed to turn his mind to 
a great variety of diverse occupations with equal 
success and facility. His " Autobiography " 
bears on every page the impress of an original, 
if not a profound, mind. Domestic in his habits 
and devoted to his children, he turned from the 



WILLIA3f H. SEWARD 125 

cares a?id anxieties of a statesman's career to im- 
press upon his boys lessons of morality, good 
breeding, and patriotism, which are among the 
choicest treasures of his long and useful life. 
For example, to one of his little boys, when he 
was away from home, he wrote this charming 
letter : 

"My Dear Boy: I have written a letter to 
Augustus, and I write one now to you. I write 
it with red ink so that you may know them 
apart. The people where I am sta3'ing are very 
nice people, but there is a boy here that does 
one very naughty thing. I saw yesterday on 
the mantel-piece a saucer filled with the shells 
of birds' eggs. Now, it is wicked to take away 
their eggs from the pretty little birds. It is dif- 
ferent altogether from taking the old hen's eggs 
away from her. Hen's eggs are good to eat and 
it is right to take them. The hen does not know 
how many eggs she has, and therefore she does 
not feel sorry when you take them all away but 
one, and she is such an ignorant old creature that 
she wouldn't know it if 30U should take away her 
last egg and put a paper one in its place. But 
the little birds' eggs are not good to eat ; they 
know how many eggs the}" have, and they are 
very sorry and mourn many days if you take 
them away. This same naughty boy got up 
yesterday morning, took his gun, and shot a very 
pretty little yellow-bird. He brought it into the 
house, laid it on the table, and it lay there all the 
morning. At noon he threw it away. Now, do 
you think the little boy was any happier because 



120 STATESMEN 

he had killed that harmless little yellow-bird? 
Perhaps the bird has left little ones in her nest, 
and they too must have died before this time." 

Seward's entrance into public life was early. 
When he was less than twenty-three years old 
he embarked in the political contest then raging, 
as an advocate of the election of John Ouincy 
Adams, and he drew up a very strong, striking, 
and pungent address, in which he arraigned the 
"Albany Regency " and denounced the methods 
of Martin Van Buren's supporters. The Albany 
Regency was composed of leading politicians of 
the Jackson stripe, who held the political for- 
tunes of the State of New York as in a grasp of 
iron. It was against this Regency that Seward 
was to be pitted, later on. His election to the 
State Senate was a great victory. The Whig 
party, which had originated in opposition to the 
Jackson administration and the Albany Regency, 
nominated Seward for Governor in 1834. He 
was defeated by William L. Marcy, who had a 
fair majority. At this time he was thirty-three 
years of age, and it is a curious illustration of 
the narrowness of the political prejudices of the 
time, that he was assailed bv his opponents for 
his extreme youth and his red hair. Mr. Seward's 
hair was a warm auburn in tint. In his " Auto- 
biography " he has narrated an amusing incident 
which occurred when he was at Long Branch, 
N. J., the year after his defeat. A benevolent- 
looking old gentleman said : " Excuse me, sir, if I 
ask you an obtrusive questi(jn, but I see by the 
papers that there was a candidate for Governor 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD 



127 



in your State last fall — the one who was defeated — 
whose name was the same as yours. Pray, was 
he any relative of your family?" Mr. Seward 
had to admit that he was a near relative. 

" Not your father, was it, sir? " 

" No, not my father." 

A pause ensued, and then, overcome by curi- 
osity, the old gentleman returned to the attack : 

" Could it have been a brother of yours ? " 




Mr. Seward in Early Life. 



" Well, Mr. T.," said Seward, " I may as well 
confess to you that I am myself that unfortunate 
man." 

" Dear me," said the other, with unaffected 
surprise and s3aTipathy, " I never should have 
thought it, and so young, too ; I am very sorry. 
How near did you come to being elected ? " 

" Not very near. I only got a hundred and 
sixty-nine thousand votes." 

" A hundred and sixty-nine thousand votes and 



128 STATES }[ EN 

not elected," was the astonished reply. " Why, 
that is more than all the candidates together ever 

get in New Jersey. A hundred and -good 

heavens, sir, how many votes does it take to 
elect a man in New York?" 

The redness of Mr. Seward's hair was taken 
up and commented upon by some of his news- 
paper friends, who set forth in a most elaborate 
way that Esau, Cato, Clovis, William Rufus, and 
others of a lofty race of red-haired heroes, re- 
sembled Seward in this highly important re- 
spect ; while others showed how many of the 
greatest names in history were achieved in 
youth. In those days of ferment parties rose 
and fell on what would now be considered very 
slight issues. 

Perhaps the most momentous crisis in the po- 
litical history of New York was that brought on 
by the Anti-Masonic movement in 1828-g. In 
September, 1826, William Morgan, an inhabitant 
of Batavia, in the county of Genesee, was ar- 
rested on the charge of petty larceny and was 
conveyed to the common jail in the county of 
Ontario, Canandaigua. He was taken from jail 
by citizens of Canandaigua, put in a closed car- 
riage and clandestinely driven to Lockport, and 
thence to Fort Niagara, on the banks of the Ni- 
agara River. There for a time all trace of him 
disappeared. The story goes that he was taken 
from Fort Niagara and in some way summarily 
put to death. The explanation of this curious 
transaction was that he was a Freemason who 
had conceived the notion of making public the 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD 129 

secrets of the order ; that he had prepared a book 
which was then in type in a printing-office in 
Batavia, and was about to be published. The 
printing-office was forcibly attacked and burned 
down in the night to destroy the partly prepared 
book, and it was charged that this outrage and 
the supposed murder of Morgan were the work 
of the Freemasons. An intense excitement broke 
out in the counties west of Cayuga Lake, and in 
due time spread throughout the State, and even 
into other portions of the Northern States. The 
presidential election of 1828 was coming on 
and the Anti-Masonic party grew to be an im- 
portant political factor. It was during this tre- 
mendous Anti-Masonic excitement that a political 
phrase, since well known, came into use. A body, 
said to be that of William Morgan, had been 
found in the Niagara River. It was never thor- 
oughly identified, but Thurlow Weed, Mr. Sew- 
ard's closest political friend and ally, was said to 
have declared that "it was a good-enough Mor- 
gan until after election." 

Curiously enough, the Anti- Masonic excite- 
ment assumed proportions big enough to carry it 
into a national canvass, and in 183 1 Mr. Seward, 
visiting Massachusetts, thought it worth while to 
have an interview with John Quincy Adams on 
the subject of re-entering public life as the na- 
tional candidate of the Anti-Masons. Mr. Sew- 
ard describes John Quincy Adams as "a short, 
rather corpulent man, of sixty and upward. He 
was bald ; his countenance was staid, sober al- 
most to gloom or sorrow, and hardly gave an in- 
9 



130 



STA TESMEN 



dication of his superiority over other men. His 
eyes were weak and inflamed. He was dressed 
in an olive frock-coat, and cravat carelessly tied, 
and an old-fashioned light-colored vest and panta- 
loons. It was obvious that he was a student just 
called from the labors of his closet." To this mi- 
nute description, which indicates Seward's ha- 
bit of close observation, is added this comment: 
" As I left the house, I thought I could plainly 
answer how it happened that he, the best Presi- 




Mi. Seward's Home at Auburn, N. Y. 



dent since Washington, entered and left the ofifice 
with so few devoted personal friends." Years 
afterward, Seward wrote a biography of John 
Quincy Adams, which to-day stands among the 
very best personal histories ever written by an 
American. 

As I have said, Seward early imbibed ideas 
hostile to slavery, and he took an active part in 
forming those advance columns of the friends of 
human liberty which finally swept the Northern 
States. He was a second time a candidate for 



WILLIAM II. SEWARD 131 

Governor of New York, in 1838, and was elected 
over Marcy by a handsome majority. During 
his candidacy he was again assailed for the red- 
ness of his hair and his extreme youth, and it 
was in vain pleaded that he was four years older 
than when he had before been a candidate. An- 
other charge against him was in reference to 
transactions with the Holland Land Company 
and their tenants, who were in possession of cer- 
tain wild lands in Chautauqua County ; but a 
more important issue in the campaign was raised 
by the Anti-Slavery Society, which propounded 
to the candidates in nomination three questions : 
First. In regard to granting fugitive slaves trial 
by jury. Second. In regard to abolishing dis- 
tinctions and constitutional rights founded solely 
on complexion. Third. In regard to the repeal 
of the law which authorized the importation of 
slaves into New York and their detention as such 
during a period of nine months. In a calm 
reply, Seward, while avowing his firm faith in 
trial by jury, and saying that the more humble 
the individual the stronger is his claim to its 
protection, and declaring his opposition in clear 
and definite terms to all human bondage, refused 
to make any ante-election pledges as to his ac- 
tion upon specific measures. He declared that 
these must actually come before him for his de- 
cision. The greater part of the followers of 
the Anti-Slavery leaders were satisfied with these 
answers, although the leaders themselves were 
not. 

Seward's election was hailed with the wildest 



132 STATESMEN 

enthusiasm by the New York Whigs, and his 
inauguration and administration were regarded 
as matters of the highest political importance. 
During his administration of the governorship 
a controversy arose between him and the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia regarding the return of three 
sailors who were charged with the crime of aid- 
ing a slave, who secreted himself on board their 
vessel, to escape from bondage. Governor 
Seward took high ground in his reply. The 
laws of the State of New York, he said, did not 
recognize property in man, and to aid a person 
therefore to escape from slavery was not a 
crime. His exposition of natural law and of the 
law of slavery was masterly and unanswerable, 
and in the long controversy that followed, Vir- 
ginia was finally driven to the extreme of threat- 
ening to dissolve the Union. The Virginia 
Governor appealed to other States, and finally 
in great wrath resigned his office. The Virginia 
legislature passed an act requiring that all New 
York vessels in ports of Virginia should be 
searched before they were permitted to sail, for 
slaves that might be secreted on board. A sim- 
ilar controversy arose between New York and 
Georgia during Governor Seward's administra- 
tion, with a similar result. In all these cases 
Governor Seward maintained an attitude of 
calm, courteous, but immovable opposition to 
the claims of slavery. This position he steadily 
maintained through all his public career. While 
he was Governor he pro{)osed to extend the 
right of suffrage to the negroes of New York, 



WILLIAM U. SEWARD 



133 



slavery having in the meantime been abolished, 
and this with other public utterances placed him 




among the foremost opponents of 
slavery within the Whig party. 

As Governor of New York, Sew- 
ard advt)cated and carried through a just and lib- 
eral policy. During his administration imprison- 



134 STATESMEN 

ment for debt was abolished, the cause of general 
education was advanced, internal improvements 
were made, and foreign immigration fostered. 

Elected to the United States Senate in 1849, 
he early took occasion to declare his sentiments 
on the then dominant topic — slavery. In a 
speech on March 11, 1850, the admission of Cali- 
fornia being under consideration, he said that 
there was " a higher law than the Constitution 
which regulated the authority of Congress over 
the national domain — the law of God and the in- 
terests of humanity." This phrase was denounced 
by the defenders of slavery as treasonable. Eight 
years later, in a speech delivered at Rochester, 
N. Y., he referred to the " irrepressible conflict" 
then going on, which could only end in the 
United States becoming either entirely a slave- 
holding or non-slaveholding nation. These two 
phrases clung to Seward all through his public 
career, and will long be associated with his name. 
Seward's habit of mind, however, was not com- 
bative, and, with his habitually gentle disposi- 
tion, he avoided all unnecessary controversy. 
Even when he was Secretary of State in Lin- 
coln's administration, his habit of looking on the 
bright side of things was thought by many to be 
one of the causes of the slowness with which the 
war was prosecuted. He believed that Provi- 
dence would deal with slavery as it dealt with 
other things, which came to an end in the course 
of time without confusion and without violence; 
and he ))ersuaded himself that the Avar, when it 
did come, was nothing more than a temporary 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD 135 

disturbance. It was even said of him, and not 
denied, that he was in favor, as Secretary of 
State, of diverting the nation from the great is- 
sue before it by provoking a foreign war; but 
there never was any question as to Seward's lof- 
ty patriotism, and his sincere devotion to the 
cause of human freedom and the rights of man. 

When the RepubHcan party, in i860, had ar- 
rived at a point where there was a possibility 
that it might triumph on account of the divisions 
in the Democratic party, Seward was the most 
prominent candidate for the Presidential nom- 
ination. The convention met in Chicago amidst 
the greatest excitement. By many the nomina- 
tion of Seward was thought a foregone conclu- 
sion. He was the leading Republican of the 
Eastern States, well known for his learning, emi- 
nent legal ability, and, above all, for the pure 
and honest administration of his high office as 
Governor of the State of New York. No other 
name but his so evoked the enthusiasm of the 
masses of the people of the States east of the 
great lakes, and intense was the surprise of hun- 
dreds of thousands of persons when the compar- 
atively unknown prairie lawyer and rail-splitter, 
Abraham Lincoln, was nominated in place of the 
statesman, William H. Seward. 

Looking back upon these stirring historic 
events, it now seems as though an overruling 
Providence had so contrived matters, apparently 
in the hands of men, that another man, trained 
in a rougher and harder school than Seward, 
should be elected to furnish the excuse for the 



136 STATESMEN 

wSouthcrn revolt and lead the nation through fire 
and blood to human freedom. 

By a curious combination of circumstances, 
some of the most conspicuous rivals of Lincoln 
in the race for the Presidential nomination were 
taken into his cabinet. Edward Bates, of Mis- 
souri, who was one of these, was made Attorney- 
General, and William H. Seward, by common 
consent, was regarded as the only person to 
whom to entrust the portfolio of the Secretary 
of State. It is very likely that Seward, with his 
long training, his charming habit of self-compla- 
cency, and his knowledge of men and affairs, re- 
garded himself as likely to be the real interior 
spirit of the Lincoln administration. With this 
view he outlined a presidential inaugural ad- 
dress and defined a policy for the new adminis- 
tration to follow. It is hardly necessary to say 
that Lincoln was the absolute President and mas- 
ter of the situation, and that Seward, who was 
wise and shrewd, very soon learned to take the 
measure of the new man from the West and to 
accept his own position, the duties of which he 
discharged with wonderful ability, and with a 
certain graciousness of manner that has never 
been excelled by any statesman in that place. 

His conduct of the foreign affairs of the Re- 
public during the trying times of the civil war 
was in every respect masterly, patriotic, and cal- 
culated to win, as it did, the respect and admira- 
tion of the civilized world. The affair of the 
Trent was one of the incidents of his adminis- 
tration which at one time threatened to draw us 



WILLI A3f H. SEWARD . 137 

into war with England, while we were yet en- 
deavoring to put down a gigantic rebellion at 
home. Captain Wilkes, of the United States 
ship San Jacinto, had taken from the British pas- 
senger steamer Trent two rebel commissioners 
on their way to England — Messrs. Mason and 
Slidell. Their return was demanded by the Brit- 
ish Government, and for a time it seemed as 
though the United States Government must 
either submit to a gross humiliation in surren- 
der or go to war, either of which was to be pro- 
foundly deplored. Secretary Seward, by refer- 
ring this question to an unsettled and vexatious 
dispute with England, which had been raised 
during the war of 1812, contrived to extricate 
the United States Government from a most 
baffling dilemma, and to save at once the honor 
and the credit of the nation. The rebel commis- 
sioners were restored to the British flag. 

As a lawyer, Seward distinguished himself by 
befriending the poor and needy, the friendless 
and the stranger. His chivalrous love of fair 
play was aroused whenever he heard the cry of 
the enslaved or the oppressed. He defended 
persons who were accused of having aided in the 
escape of fugitive slaves, and in many ways man- 
ifested his sympathy with those who were in 
distress and apparently under the ban of the law. 
Here are two or three extracts from his occa- 
sional addresses that may be taken as his points 
of doctrine: 

" If all the internal improvements required to 
cross this State were to be made at once, the 



138 . STATESMEN 

debt which would be created would not impair 
the public credit or retard the public prosperity 
a single year. The expenses of a single year of 
war would exceed the whole sum of such cost." 

" Wealth and prosperity have always served 
as the guides which introduced vice, luxury, and 
corruption into republics ; and luxury, vice, and 
corruption have subverted every republic which 
has preceded us that had force enough in its in- 
corrupted state to resist foreign invasion." 

" The perpetuity of this Union is, and ought to 
be, the object ot the most persevering and watch- 
ful solicitude on the part of every American 
citizen." 

In 1865, when President Lincoln was assas- 
sinated in the city of Washington, the band of con- 
spirators who had planned the murder of the Pres- 
ident had also included Seward and some other 
members of the cabinet in their deadly scheme. 
One of the assassins, swiftly and unexpectedly 
gaining entrance at the street door, mounted to 
the chamber where Seward was lying ill in his 
bed. The conspirator, armed with a knife, threw 
himself upon the sick man and stabbed him 
in several places, but was prevented from instant- 
ly killing him by the attendant, a male nurse. 
While the attendant and the assassin were strug- 
gling together, Seward craftily rolled himself, 
over and fell between the bed and the wall, and 
before the wretch could go further, help came 
and Seward's life was saved. For days he lin- 
gered between living and dying, his face so 
gashed with the assassin's knife that it was with 



WILLIA3f IT. SEWARD 



139 








The Seward Statue, by Randolph Rogers, in Madison Square, New York. 

difficulty that he could be fed. After many 
days of pain and confinement he was permitted 
to be bolstered up in bed and look out upon the 
summer sky. Fearing the effect that the news 
would have upon the enfeebled invalid, Seward 
had not been told of the details of the conspiracy 
nor of the death of Lincoln ; but as his eyes 
sought out the familiar objects from the window 



14(1 STATESMEN 

of his sick-room, he saw the Hai; on the White 
House at half-mast. Instantly divining all that 
had happened, he said : " The President is dead," 
and relapsed into silence, while the tears coursed 
down his scarred and wounded face. 

During Johnson's administration Seward was 
able to resume his place in the State Department, 
and, greatly to the disappointment of some of 
his friends, he supported the policy of the Presi- 
dent, which \vas somewhat at variance with that 
of Lincoln. Many of his friends fell away from 
him, and he doubtless endured in silence and in 
sorrow the obloquy to which he was exposed by 
reason of his \villingness to administer the affairs 
of the State Department during the administra- 
tion of a man whose policy was highly objection- 
able to the party that had elected Lincoln, and to 
which Seward had so long been faithful. 

An important incident of Seward's service in 
the State Department during Andrew Johnson's 
administration was the purchase of Alaska from 
Russia by the United States Government, a trans- 
action which Seward conducted with great skill 
and diplomatic ability. His name should be for- 
ever associated with that surprising state stroke. 

On his retirement from the State Department 
Seward undertook a journey around the world, 
accompanied by members of his family. It was 
a unique and wonderful journey, occupying 
more than a year. Everywhere the aged states- 
man was received with the most impressive 
demonstrations of respect and veneration. In 
foreign lands, where one would scarcely expect 



WILLIAM II. SEWARD 141 

the name of an American to have penetrated, he 
was greeted with a certain impressiveness that 
was a wonderful tribute to his fame and to his 
prominence. On his return to Auburn he said, 
in a little speech to his neighbors who greeted 
him at his own house : " In the course of my 
wanderings I have seen, not all the nations, but 
some of the nations of every race of the earth. I 
have looked the whole human family in the face, 
and taken by the hand and conversed with my 
fellow-man in his lowest degradation and in his 
highest state of civilization. I found no nation 
so distant and no race so low that the character 
of an American citizen did not secure to me, not 
merely safety, but also respect, consideration, 
and affection." This was in October, 1871. In 
October of the next year he died. 

In the early part of his career, in 1846, he de- 
fended and secured a fair trial for a negro ac- 
cused of murder, one Freeman. The man was 
a half-witted creature, apparently incapable of 
any appeal to his reason or to his intelligence, 
and at one time there was every probability that 
he would be lynched ; but Seward resolved to 
give him the benefit of all his talents in order 
that he should be fairly tried by a competent 
court of justice. The man was deaf, deserted, 
ignorant, and his conduct inexplicable on any 
principle of sanity. Referring to this tragical 
incident, Seward wrote of his proposed defence 
of Freeman: "This will raise a storm of preju- 
dice and passion which will try the fortitude 
of my friends, but I shall do my duty ; I cai'e 



142 STATESMEN 

not whether I am ever to be forgiven for it 
or not." Closing his argument on the trial, 
Seward said : "In due time, gentlemen of the 
jury, when I shall have paid the debt of nature, 
my remains will rest here in your midst with 
those of my kindred and .neighbors. It is very 
possible they may be unhonored, neglected, 
spurned ; but perhaps later, when the passion 
and excitement which now agitate this commu- 
nity shall have passed away, some wandering 
stranger, some lone exile, some Indian, some 
negro, may erect over them an humble stone, 
and thereon this epitaph, ' He was Faithful.' " 
The passions and excitements which agitated 
the community of that time have long since 
passed away, and possibly even the memories of 
that remarkable trial have faded from the minds 
of men ; but where Seward rests, in the embow- 
ered shades of Auburn, rises a marble monument 
on which is engraved the epitaph of his choice, 
" He was Faithful." 




!■' - 'I'f <f^ 



Salmon Portland Chase. 



VI. 

SALMON P. CHASE. 

That is a long life which covers the years be- 
tween the first appearance of a steamboat on 
Lake Erie and the end of the Civil War, the im- 
peachment of Andrew Johnson and the second 
election of General Grant. A boy, twelve years 
old, born in Cornish, N. H., in 1808, and des- 
tined to be Chief-Justice of the United States 
and the great Finance Minister of his time, jour- 
neyed from New England to that remote and al- 
most unknown region, " The Ohio," in 1820. He 
was Salmon Portland, son of Ithamar Chase, of 
a distinguished New England family. He was 
early left fatherless, and when a young lad was 
invited by his uncle. Philander Chase, the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, to be received 
into his household at Worthington, O. Chase, 
in his autobiographical notes, said : " I tried to 
find out where I was going, and got some queer 
information. ' The Ohio,' as the country was 
then called, was a great way off. It was very 
fertile. Cucumbers grew on trees ! There were 
wonderful springs whose waters were like New 
England rum ! Deer and wolves were plenty, 
and people few." The lad began his journey, in 
charge of his elder brother Alexander, who was 



144 STATESMEN 

going West with the intention of joining Gen- 
eral Cass's expedition into the Indian country ; 
and another member of the party was Henry 
R. Schoolcraft, who afterward became distin- 
guished as a writer on Indian ethnology, cus- 
toms, and traditions. 

The little party at Black Rock, Lake Erie, 
were to take passage on a novel craft, the steamer 
" Walk-in-the-Water," for Cleveland. They were 
detained by reason of the ice in the lake. It was 
then April, 1820, and when they did finally em- 
bark, the steamer was towed part way by several 
yoke of oxen attached to a tow-line, walking on 
the bank ; and when they were forced to leave 
the shore, the steamer was helped in her prog- 
ress across the open lake by sails as well as by 
steam. Nevertheless this method of navigation 
was greatly admired for its speed and its nov- 
elty. 

Arriving at Cleveland Alexander Chase and 
Schoolcraft left the lad behind, where he was 
to wait for company to take charge of him to 
Worthington. During his tarry here he amused 
himself and earned a little money by ferrying pas- 
sengers across the Cuyahoga. On this incident 
was founded a pleasing tale written for boys by 
J. T. Trowbridge, and entitled " The Ferry-Boy 
and the Financier." Chase's brief experience on 
the Cuyahoga would hardly warrant any person 
in giving him the title of a ferry-boy, as his 
doings in that line were very limited. But we 
may be grateful to Mr. Trowbridge, the writer 
of the book, for his laudable endeavor, because 



SALMON P. CHASE 145 

having- written to Chase, in 1863 and 1864, for 
information on which to build his entertaining 
story, he was favored with many letters from the 
great man, in which may be found some autobio- 
graphical notes of great value, which probably 
otherwise would never have been written. 

The lad was finally taken into the charge of 
two young men who were going to Worthing- 
ton, and they went forward in company, " The 
settlement of the country," wrote Mr. Chase, in 
later years, "was only begun. Great forests 
stretched across the State. Carriage-ways were 
hardly practicable. Almost all travelling was 
performed on foot or on horseback. The two 
young men had two horses, and the arrangement 
was that we were to ride and tie, that is to say, 
one was to ride ahead some distance, then dis- 
mount and tie his horse, and walk forward. The 
person on foot was to come up, take the horse, 
ride on beyond the walker in front, then tie, and 
so on. We passed through Wooster, staying 
there overnight. This place seemed to me to 
be a great one, and the lighted houses, as we 
went in after dark, were very splendid. In three 
or four days we reached Worthington. I entered 
the town walking, and met my uncle in the street 
with two or three of his clergy or friends." 

The young lad, now domesticated with his 
uncle, the Bishop of Ohio, was expected to pur- 
sue his studies, already well begun, and to " do 
chores." He was proficient in Latin and Greek, 
and " Rollin's Ancient History " was read and 
reread by him, as many modern boys might read 
10 



146 



STATESMEN 



a cheap novel. " A ludicrous incident of his 
Worthington life," says one of his biographers, 
J. W. Shuckers, " fastened itself strongly in his 
memory. One morning the bishop and all the 
older members of the fariiily went away, leaving 
the boy at home, with directions to kill and dress 
a pig for the next day's dinner." " I had no 




The House in which Mr. Chase was Born, at Cornish, N. H. 



great difificulty," said Mr. Chase, " in catching 
and slaughtering a fat young porker. A tub of 
hot water was in readiness for plunging him in 
preparatory to taking off his bristles. Unfortu- 
nately, however, the water was too hot, or per- 
haps when I soused the pig into it T kept him 
there too long. At any rate, when I undertook 
to remove the bristles, expecting that they would 



SALMON P. CHASE 147 

come off almost of themselves, I found to my dis- 
may that I could not stir one of them. In pig- 
killing phrase, the bristles were ' set.' I pulled 
and pulled in vain. What was I to do ? The 
pig must be dressed. About that there must be 
no failure. I thoiught of my cousin's razors, a 
nice new pair, just suited to the use of a spruce 
young clergyman as he was. No sooner thought 
of than done. I got the razors and shaved the 
pig from tail to snout. I think the shaving was 
a success. The razors were damaged by the 
operation, however, but they were carefully 
cleaned and restored to their place. My im- 
pression is that, on the whole, the killing was 
not satisfactory to the bishop, and that my cousin 
did not find his razors exactly in condition for 
use the next morning. But the operation had 
its moral, and showed that where there is a will 
there is a way." This humble and grotesque 
experience in young Chase's life may very fairly 
be taken as an indication of the stuff that was in 
him. His will was indomitable, and whatever 
he set out to do, from that day until the day he 
laid down his life, was done. 

Those were hard times in " The Ohio." 
*' Prices of all provisions were low. Corn was 
ten and even six cents a bushel, the purchaser 
himself gathering it in the field. Twenty-five 
cents would buy a bushel of wheat, good and in 
good order. There were no good roads, no ac- 
cessible markets, no revenue, and salaries were 
small. I have heard the bishop say that his whole 
money income as bishop did not pay his postage 



148 STATESMEN 

bills. It took a bushel of wheat to pay for the 
conveyance of a letter over one hundred and 
sixty miles." So when the good bishop was of- 
fered the presidency of, Cincinnati College, in 
1822, he accepted the place as offering a means 
of deliverance from his hard and unprofitable 
post at the head of the diocese. 

Salmon P. Chase entered the college as a 
freshman, but by extra study was very soon pro- 
moted to the sophomore class, in which he distin- 
guished himself by his industry and application. 
His first public exercise was a year earlier, when 
he delivered an original Greek oration. " My 
subject," he says, " was Paul and John compared, 
Paul being the principal figure. What trouble 
I had to turn my English thoughts into Greek 
forms! The subject helped me, however, for it 
allowed me to take sentences from the Testa- 
ment and thus abridge my labors ! " The orator 
was highly successful, generously applauded, 
and received the commendation of his uncle, the 
bishop. 

While sophomore in Cincinnati College a mis- 
chievous student set fire to one of the desks. 
Great was the consternation, and when the fire 
had been put out the tutor began, with the stu- 
dents ranged in the class, with, " Sophomore , 

did you set fire to the desk ? " " No, sir." " Do you 
know who did ? " " No, sir." He reached the cul- 
prit. " Did you set fire to the desk ? " Nothing 
abashed, his answer was, " No, sir." " Do you 
know who did ? " " No, sir." Sa3'S Chase : " I 
saw I had to pass the ordeal, and determined to 








^ i \ ' 



■'pm 'I if 



150 STATESMEN 

tell the truth, but not to give the name of my 
classmate, which I thought would be about as 
mean as to tell a lie would be wrong. The 
question came. ' Sophomore Chase, did you set 
fire to the desk ? ' ' No, sir.' ' Do you know 
who did?' * Yes, sir.' 'Who was it?' ' I shall not 
tell you, sir.' He said no more. The case went 
before the faculty, and I heard was the subject 
of some discussion, but it was not thought worth 
while to prosecute the inquir}-." 

The hard times grew harder, and even the 
college was obliged finally to suspend opera- 
tions for the time, and Bishop Chase went to 
England to raise means to establish a theologi- 
cal school. Young Chase returned to New 
England, where his loving and zealous mother 
thought that she could spare enough from her 
scanty store, added to whatever sums he might 
earn for himself meanwhile, to carrv him through 
Dartmouth College. " ITow little I appreciated 
her sacrifices," he says, " and it is sad to think, 
and tears fill my eyes as I do think, how late 
comes true appreciation of them. Alas ! how 
inadequately, until the beloved mother who 
made them has gone beyond the reach of its 
manifestation." 

Not long after his entry into Dartmouth 
College he met with another characteristic 
event, and also important as indicating the 
ruggedness of his character. Some difficulty 
occurred, in which a friend of his, one George 
Punchard, a warm-hearted and generous fellow, 
was involved. Chase had nothinsf to do with 



SALMON P. CHASE 151 

the affair, but took Punchard's part cordially, 
because he believed him to be unjustly cen- 
sured. The faculty took the matter in hand and 
Punchard was suspended. Chase waited upon 
the President and remonstrated, but the Presi- 
dent intimated that the faculty was the proper 
judge of that question, and had decided. Chase 
said : " Then I desire to leave the college also, 
for I do not wish to stay where a student is 
liable to such injustice." " Had I consulted my 
mother ? " " No, but I wanted leave of absence 
for a few days that I might do so." " You can- 
not have it," said the President. " Then, sir," 
said Chase, very respectfully, " I must go with- 
out it." " He saw my determination, and I think 
really respected the motive which prompted it. 
At any rate, he at last consented to the leave." 
The 3^oung man's mother welcomed him, but 
while she could not approve, she did not cen- 
sure him harshly for his course. Many years 
afterward he said : " I could not help feeling 
that I had done right in standing by my friend, 
though I was sorry I had been obliged to leave 
college." He eventually, however, returned to 
college and graduated with credit, though with- 
out special distinction. 

Leaving college after graduation, he made his 
way to Washington, D. C, by slow and eco- 
nomical stages, and there boldly proclaimed, 
through the advertising columns of the National 
Intelligencer, his intention to open, in the west- 
ern part of the city, a select classical school, 
the special advantages of which were set forth 



152 STATESMEN 

with some minuteness, and the number of his 
pupils was discreetly limited to twenty ; be- 
yond that he could not go. He waited patiently 
and hopefully for the coming of the twenty pu- 
pils. One only was brought forward to regis- 
ter his name — Columbus Bonfils ; but, alas ! Co- 
lumbus Bonfils was the first and last pupil ; the 
other nineteen never made their appearance. 
Like many another young fellow cast adrift 
in Washington, he bethought him of obtaining 
a government clerkship. His uncle, Dudley 
Chase, was a Senator from Vermont and an 
influential friend and supporter of John Quincy 
Adams, then President. Young Chase accord- 
ingly waited upon the great man at his lodg- 
ings, told the story of his unsuccessful efforts, 
and besought his aid in securing a clerkship. 
The Senator replied : " I once procured an of- 
fice for a nephew of mine and he was ruined by 
it. I then determined I never would ask for 
another. I will lend you fifty cents with which 
to buy a spade, but I cannot help you to a clerk- 
ship." But Providence raised up friends for the 
plucky young man, and having relinquished his 
class of one, he was invited to take charge of 
the boys' department of " Mr. Plumley's Select 
Classical Seminary." This institution contained 
eighteen or twenty scholars, among whom was 
Salmon P. Chase's class of one, Columbus Bon- 
fils. Among other of the pupils of this academy 
were sons of Henry Clay and William Wirt, the 
latter then Attorney-General. 

In September, 1827, Chase, steadily keeping 



SALMON P. CHASE 153 

in view his intention to study the law, entered 
the office of Attorney-General Wirt, then in the 
splendid maturity of his powers, and began his 
labors as a student. But while he was zealously 
and laboriously making his way in the world 
against obstacles about which young men of 
the present day can know very little, he did not 
forget his principles as a friend of human free- 
dom. These had early been instilled into his 
very being by his devoted mother and his uncle, 
the bishop. In 1828 we find his name attached 
to a petition to Congress praying for the aboli- 
tion of slavery and the slave-trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ; and there probably was no 
opportunity offered him to express his opinions 
on the great subject of human liberty, then be- 
ginning to agitate all the people, that he did not 
readily embrace. He looked into the Capitol 
from time to time and listened to the debates of 
Congress, which did not impress him favorably 
with the order and dignity of legislative pro- 
ceedings there. 

In one of his letters to Mr. Trowbridge he 
says: " I became slightly acquainted with a num- 
ber of prominent characters, but was too diffident 
to push myself into notice, possibly too proud to 
ask for recognition, and preferring to wait for 
it ; too indifferent, also (a more serious fault), to 
what transpired around me to take much pains 
to acquaint myself with the histories and men of 
the hour. I made much too little use of the ad- 
vantages which a residence in Washington at 
that period afforded. I was poor and sensitive. 



154 (STATESMEN 

a young teacher, needing myself to be taught 
and guided." But having been admitted to the 
bar, Chase boldly said : " I would rather be first 
twenty years hence at Cincinnati than at Bal- 
timore. As I ever have been first at school 
and college, except at Dartmouth, where I was 
much too idle, I shall ever strive to be first 
wherever I may be, let what success will attend 
the effort." These were the words of a brave 
young spirit, resolved to turn again to the raw 
but promising life of the West. To Cincinnati, 
then, he went in March, 1830, was admitted to 
the bar soon after, and began a law3'er's lite. 

He was a prodigious worker, and up to his 
latest days, which were undoubtedly shortened 
by his arduous and unceasing mental labors, he 
spared himself not for a day, not for an hour, 
but devoted himself with unremitting toil to the 
accumulation of the knowledge that seemed to 
him necessary in the vocation of life immediately 
before him. Very soon after his arrival in Cin- 
cinnati he undertook and carried out a work of 
great magnitude and importance, a new edition 
of the statutes of Ohio. The codification of a 
vast body of laws, dating from 1788 to 1833, in- 
clusive, a period of forty-six years, was the her- 
culean task which he calmly assumed and exe- 
cuted while yet scarcely twenty-two years of 
age. The book is to this day a work of stand- 
ard value. 

Those were times when fugitive slaves, escap- 
ing from the soil of Kentucky to the free soil of 
Ohio, filled the whole Northwestern country 



SALMON P. CHASE 155 

with a vague feeling of trouble. Men were be- 
ginning to discuss the righteousness of human 
slavery and question the justice of returning to 
bondage those who had escaped from communi- 
ties in which slavery was recognized as a legal 
and humane institution. In July, 1836, there oc- 
curred in Cincinnati an incident known in his- 
tory as the " Birney Mob," which undoubtedly 
had much to do with coloring the political views 
of Chase. James G. Birney was a Southern slave- 
holder, who, having emancipated his human 
chattels, went to Cincinnati and established an 
anti-slavery newspaper called The Philanthropist. 
The sentiment of the city was pro-slavery, and 
the appearance of the newspaper so angered 
the people that the office was mobbed, the type 
thrown into the street and the press into the 
river. Chase viewed these lawless and outrage- 
ous proceedings with deep indignation, and the 
circumstances of the Birney mob made an im- 
pression upon his mind so deep that he resolved 
that he would make a study of the whole ques- 
tion with a view to forming some opinion as to 
the proper method of dealing with it. In one 
of his letters to Mr. Trowbridge he says : " Since 
1828 I had retained a profound sense of the 
general wrong and evil of slave-holding, but I 
thought the denunciations of slave-holders by 
abolition writers too sweeping and unjust, and I 
was not prepared for any political action against 
slavery." 

Several other fugitive slave cases followed in 
rapid succession, some of them being of a most 



156 STATESMEN 

heartrending and desperate character. One of 
the most noted of these was the Van Zandt 
case, in which an honest and well-meaning farm- 
er who had succored nine fugitive slaves was 
concerned. The fugitives were sought to be 
wrested from the custody of Van Zandt by two 
volunteer ruffians who did not pretend to have 
any authority of law. In the legal fracas which 
followed, Chase became involved as counsel 
for the defendant, Van Zandt. The case went 
from court to court, and finally was appealed to 
the United States Supreme Court, where Chase 
appeared before the tribunal of last resort asso- 
ciated with William H. Seward. Chase's argu- 
ment before the United States Supreme C(uirt 
has passed into history as one of the boldest and 
most powerful pleas for human liberty under the 
Constitution of the United States ever made by 
any lawyer. Of Mr. Seward's assistance in this 
matter Chase wrote : " I regard him as one of 
the very first public men of our country. Who 
but himself would have done what he did for 
the poor wretch Freeman ? His course in the 
Van Zandt case has been generous and noble, 
but his action in the Freeman case, considering 
his own personal position and the circumstances, 
was magnanimous in the highest degree ! " 

Chase at this time was known as the " Attor- 
ney-General for negroes ; " but when he had oc- 
casion to go into the slave-holding ground of 
Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati, as he 
often did, he was invariably treated with marked 
respect and cordiality. Even the slave-holders 



SALJION P. CHASE 157 

paid tribute to his inflexible sense of justice and 
his dignified resolution to do what he conceived 
to be his whole duty by his fellow-men. 

The Liberty party, in 1845, began to show its 
head. The call for its first convention in Ohio 
was written b}^ Salmon P. Chase and bore his 
signature among others. He had generally been 
identified with the Democratic party, and ill 
later years, although his continuance with that 
party was neither intimate nor long, men were 
accustomed to refer to him as having been early 
affiliated with the Democracy. In an address 
made in February, 1845, h^ said : " True democ- 
racy makes no inquiry about the color of the 
skin or the place of nativity, or any similar cir- 
cumstance or condition. Whei-ever it sees a man 
it recognizes a being endowed by his Creator 
with original unalienable rights. In communi- 
ties of men it recognizes no distinctions founded 
on mere arbitrary will. I regard, therefore, the 
exclusion of the colored people as a body from 
the elective franchise as incompatible with true 
democratic principles." This utterance in later 
years returned to plague the speaker ; but to his 
everlastinof honor be it said, he never for an in- 
stant deviated from the fundamental principle 
here laid down. 

Ohio Democrats were earlier impregnated 
with the idea that human slavery was wrong 
and must pass away than were their brethren 
in some of the Middle and Eastern States. It 
was comparatively easy, therefore, in 1849, to 
form a coalition by which Salmon P. Chase 



158 STATE^SMEN 

should be elected to the United States Senate, 
As in Sumner's case in Massachusetts, later on, 
it was a coalition of Free-Soilers and Democrats 
against the Hunkers and Whigs. Mr. Chase de- 
clared his intention to act with the Independent 
Democrats in all State issues so long as they 
stood by the principles which were the basis 
of the coalition. It may be said here that he 
was twice elected for Governor and twice for 
Senator, and one of the important results of the 
upheaval which had made his election possible 
was a repeal of the infamous Black Laws of the 
State. These laws required colored people to 
give bonds for good behavior as a condition 
of residence in the State, excluded them from 
the schools, denied them the right of testifying 
in the courts when a white man was party on 
either side, and subjected them to various other 
unjust and degrading disabilities. With one ex- 
ception (the right to sit on juries) these laws 
were swept from the statute-book. 

In the Senate, into which Chase now made his 
entry, the contest was over the proposition to 
open to slavery the whole of the vast territory 
acquired b}' the annexation of Texas, the Gads- 
den purchase, and the treaty of Guadalupe Hi- 
dalgo. The people of California had already 
framed a form of government for themselves, 
excluding slavery, and now awaited Federal 
action. It is not necessary now to d\vell upon 
the long debate that ensued, but it must be said 
that Senator Chase's arguments, when he \en- 
tured into the discussion, at once commanded 



SALMON P. CHASE 159 

attention and respect. His remarks were never 
greatly extended. They were always concise 
and to the point. For example, when Daniel 
Webster proposed that physical law excluded 
slavery from a portion of the new territory, 
Senator Chase asked: " Is it true that any law 
of physical geography will protect the new 
Territories from the curse of slavery ? Peonism 
was there under the Mexican law, and if peon- 
ism were not there to warn us, what may be 
expected if slavery be not prohibited ? " 

In the debate over the Fugitive Slave law, he 
pleaded earnestly for some amelioration of the 
iron statute which the slaveholders insisted upon 
forcing upon the country. The right of trial by 
jury, he urged, ought at least to be embodied 
into the law. " If the most ordinary contro- 
versy," he said, " involving a contested claim to 
$20, must be decided by a jury, surely a contro- 
versy which involves the right of a man to his 
liberty should have a similar trial." 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise by the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill was another 
opportunity which Chase readily embraced to 
disclose his immovable position on the general 
subject of human rights. He pleaded only that 
the people of the Territories, acting through 
their proper representatives in the Territorial 
Legislature and subject to the limitations of the 
Constitution, should be able to protect them- 
selves against slavei-y by prohibiting it. This 
principle was steadfastly denied by the pro- 
slavery Senators. When the battle was won for 



SALMON P. CHASE 161 

the pro-slavery cause, great was the jubilation of 
the people who had for weeks crowded the gal- 
leries and lobbies of the Capitol waiting for the 
determination of the question. It was dark in the 
early morning of March 4, 1854, after a session 
of seventeen hours, when the bill finally passed 
the Senate. Senators Chase and Sumner walked 
down the steps of the Capitol together. The 
thunder of a cannon's salute by the victorious 
slave-owners fell upon their ears. Said Chase : 
" They celebrate a present victory, but the 
echoes that they awake will never rest until 
slavery itself shall die." 

Nominated for Governor of Ohio by the Re- 
publican party in 1855, Chase stumped the 
State, making a series of vigorous and effective 
speeches. During his term of ofifice the State 
was repeatedly torn with dissensions over ques- 
tions raised by the attempt to return fugitive 
slaves. It is noticeable, however, that public 
opinion, since his first activity in the Van Zandt 
and similar cases, had greatly changed for the 
better. It was now thought necessary to apolo- 
gize for any attempt on the part of the United 
States authorities and their sympathizers to ex- 
ecute the infamous and generally unpopular law 
regarding fugitive slaves. Some of these cases 
were of a peculiarly distressing character, the 
celebrated case of Margaret Garner being one. 
This was a peculiarly horrible affair, a fugitive 
slave -mother undertaking to kill her offspring 
rather than see them remanded again to bond- 
age. And it is possible that the tragicalness of 
11 



162 STATESMEN 

this dreadful business, and the bh)()dy heroism 
of the slave mother, did much to stir the con- 
science of people who had been disposed to 
apologize and defend the peculiar institution. 

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising 
that the stalwart and indomitable Republican 
Senator from Ohio should develop an ambition 
for the Presidential nomination of his party. It 
is not certain that he aided materially in any of 
the plans of his Ohio friends, which had for their 
purpose his nomination in i860, by the National 
Republican Convention at Chicago; but the 
delegation from his State was not united, and 
although his name was presented and figured 
somewhat conspicuously in the list of candidates 
before the balloting, he did not cut a great fig- 
ure in the convention. Abraham Lincoln was 
nominated and elected. Ver}^ early in January 
following Chase was invited to meet Lincoln 
in Springfield. The President - elect cordially 
greeted him, and said : " I have done with you 
what I would not perhaps have ventured to do 
with any other man in the country— sent for 
you to ask you whether you will accept the ap- 
pointment of Secretary of the Treasury, with- 
out, however, being exactly prepared to offer it 
to you." To this somewhat embarrassing prop- 
osition Chase replied that he was in an unpleas- 
ant position. He wanted no appointment, and 
certainly could hardly reconcile himself to the 
acceptance of a subordinate place. Lincoln told 
him that he felt bound to offer the first place to 
Seward, who, it will be remembered, was Lin- 



SALMON P. CHASE 163 

coin's chief opponent in the contest for the 
Presidental nomination. Finally, however, soon 
after Lincoln's arrival in Washington, Chase 
was nominated and confirmed by the Senate, 
much to his surprise, no word having passed 
between the President-elect and himself mean- 
while. 

It was as the great Finance Minister of the 
civil war that Chase's real genius was set to 
work and his proudest laurels were won. The 
condition of the Treasury when he took charge 
was deplorable. The public finances were 
greatly depressed ; Congress had been rent by 
stormy factions, and a powerful body of the 
Northern people protested passionately against 
the existence of any power on the part of the 
General Government to coerce the so-called se- 
ceding States. Chase's biographer, Mr. Shuck- 
ers, says of him : " His abilities and energies 
soon manifested themselves to the people. He 
re-established the public credit upon solid foun- 
dations. He created a currency which answered 
all the vast requirements of the war, and was 
beyond all precedent in the history of the country 
popular among the people, and this, too, before 
the suspension of cash payments. It is impor- 
tant to be remembered that that currency was 
not at first a legal tender. He projected a sys- 
tem of national banks designed ultimatel}^ to 
supersede all similar institutions existing under 
State laws. The circulating notes of these banks, 
secured both by private capital and by ample 
deposits of government bonds in the Treasury of 



161 STATESMEN 

the United States, were intended to provide in 
an emphatic sense a sound and uniform currency, 
the benefits of which (embracing the whole 
country and extending into the far future) were 
to prevent the evils inseparable from disordered 
issues. Under the general operation of his 
measures the loans of the government were ab- 
sorbed with great rapidity, not only by domestic 
purchasers, but by foreign investors, and more 
important than any other consideration, the ad- 
ministration was enabled to meet the prodigious 
expenditures entailed by the war, promptly, 
surely, regularly." 

Webster said of Alexander Hamilton : " He 
smote the rock of the national resources and 
abundant streams of revenue gushed forth." 
How truly this may be said of Chase we may 
gather from Blaine's comment in his " Twenty 
Years of Congress," on the system of internal 
revenue planned and put into operation by Secre- 
tary Chase : " Congress rendered the taxes more 
palatable and less oppressive to the producers 
by largely increasing the duties on imports by 
the tariff act of July 14, 1862, thus shutting out 
still more conclusively all competition from for- 
eign fabrics. The increased cost was charged to 
the consumer, and taxes of fabulous amoimts 
were paid promptly and with apparent cheerful- 
ness by the people. The internal revenue was 
bounteous from the first, and in a short period 
increased to $1,000,000 per day for every secular 
day of the year. The amount paid on incomes 
for a single year reached $65,000,000, the lead- 



SALMON P. CHASE 165 

ing merchant in New York paying in one check 
a tax of $400,000 on an income of $4,000,000. 
. . . It was the crowning glory of Secretary 
Chase's policy, and its scope and boldness en- 
title him to rank with the great financiers of 
the world." 

Nor were the operations of Chase's broad and 
comprehensive mind confined to the finances of 
the government. He was consulted in the con- 
duct of the war at almost every step, and where 
Secretary Seward was deemed hesitating and 
conservative. Secretary Chase was always bold, 
aggressive, and progressive. He assisted in the 
early formation of the army of volunteers, a 
duty in which his active and thoughtful meas- 
ures to promote the efficiency of the Ohio mi- 
litia admirably fitted him. We are told that 
Chase during this period often lamented that he 
had not himself in earlv life turned his thoughts 
to the study of military strategy. He had in 
him many of the qualities that make a great 
soMier. He never lost his mental balance or 
self-possession ; in moments of the greatest ex- 
terior excitement, he was thoughtful, collected, 
and calm. Horace Greeley once impetuously 
declared at a breakfast- table in Washington, 
during one of the dark periods of the war: 
" Why does not President Lincoln make Gov- 
ernor Chase commander of the Army of the 
Potomac ? If he had been, the war would have 
ended in eighteen months." 

When we reflect that Mr. Chase at one time 
in his life seriously thought of taking holy orders, 



106 STATESMEN 

but did become a politician and a financier, his 
regret that he had not been a soldier may seem 
somewhat grotesque to one who does not know 
how the stress and the strain of the civil war com- 
pelled many a man to wish that he too were a 
strategist and a soldier. In one of his letters to 
Mr, Trowbridge, before referred to, Chase said : 
" While he was Secretary of War General Cam- 
eron conferred much with me. I never under- 
took to do anything in his department except 
when asked to give my help, and then I gave it 
willingly. In addition to Western border State 
matters, the principal subjects between General 
Cameron and myself were slavery and the em- 
ployment of colored troops. We agreed very 
early that the necessity of arming them was 
inevitable, but we were alone in that opinion. At 
least no other member of the administration 
gave open support, while the President and Mr. 
Blair at least were decidedly averse to it." 
And yet the time came when the employment of 
colored troops in the suppression of the rebel- 
lion was not only accepted as a necessity, but was 
eagerl}- demanded and approved by all the loyal 
people of the North, 

Chase's resignation of the office of Secretary 
of the Treasury, in June, 1864, was the result of 
a series of misunderstandings or disagreements 
between himself and President Lincoln in relation 
to Federal appointments. It must be admitted 
that Chase's selections for office were not always 
wise. Possibly they were in some instances bet- 
ter than those of the President, but he insisted 



SALMON P. CHASE 167 

with most autocratic vehemence that he should 
be sole in authority in all matters pertaining to 
the patronage of his high office, and while the 
President often did defer to the Secretary's will 
when it clashed with his own, there seems to 
have been no time when the Secretary deferred 
to the President's will when it interfered with 
his ; or if he did, it was with ill grace, and after 
several such disagreements Secretary Chase ab- 
ruptly left the Cabinet. His well-known ambi- 
tion to be President was very naturally revived 
by the insidious flatterers who thronged about 
him as soon as it was known that he had definite- 
ly quitted Lincoln's Cabinet with something like 
a personal quarrel with the President. Many 
politicians who had become dissatisfied with 
Lincoln's policy, whether justly or unjustly, 
thought they saw in the towering figure of the 
ex-Secretary of the Treasury an opportunity to 
divide the party and to lead the more radical 
elements to victory through his candidacy. The 
nomination for the new Presidential term was 
about coming on, and some of the ill-advised 
friends of the ex-Secretary put forth frantic 
efforts to secure his nomination. Among other 
devices, a so-called secret circular was put out 
by Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, and others. 
Commenting on this ill-starred venture of the 
anti-Lincoln Republicans, Blaine says : " These 
various elements of discontent and opposition 
clustered about Secretary Chase and found in 
him their natural leader. He was the head of 
the radical forces in the Cabinet, as Mr. Seward 



IGS STATESMEN 

was the exponent of the conservative policy. 
He had been one of the earliest and most zeal- 
ous chiefs of the Free Soil party, and ranked 
among the brightest stars in that small galaxy 
of anti-slavery Senators who bore so memorable 
a part in the Congressional struggles before the 
war. He was justly distinguished as a political 
leader and an able and a versatile statesman. For 
the part he was now desired and expected to 
play he had a decided inclination and not a few 
advantages. Keenly ambitious, he was justified 
by his talents, however mistaken his time and 
his methods, in aspiring to the highest place." 

Chase had all along clung to the proposition 
that no President should have a second term of 
office, and he had added the opinion that a man 
of different qualities from those of Lincoln 
would be needed for the next four years suc- 
ceeding his first term. A few days after the 
appearance of the so-called secret circular of 
Pomeroy, the Republican members of the Ohio 
Legislature passed a resolution in favor of Lin- 
coln's renominati(jn, upon which Chase with- 
drew his name as a candidate. It may be said 
that the opposition to Lincoln's renomination 
practically ended tlien and there, although it 
still showed itself in fitful bursts of restlessness 
before his renomination at Baltimore, in the 
summer of 1864. 

Later in that year, Roger B. Taney, that ex- 
Secretary of the Treasury who had been re- 
warded with the great office of Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States by An- 



170 STATESMEN 

drew Jackson, lor his subserviency in the uial- 
ter of removing the public deposits from the 
United States bank, died. By a curious coinci- 
dence, another ex-Seci"etary of the Treasur}-, 
but far more renowned, honest, and pure, was 
nominated to take his place. While the office 
remained unfilled, there was great concern 
throughout the country over the possible action 
of President Lincoln. Sumner and man}' oth- 
er advanced Republicans besought Lincoln to 
nominate Chase ; but, on the other hand, the 
President was overwhelmed with expostulations 
from his own friends, who besought him to re- 
member that the man whose nomination seemed 
imminent had been his rival in the preceding 
canvass for the Presidential nomination, and to 
withhold from him this high honor. One day 
during the pendency of this doubt I had occa- 
sion to see the President in his private office. 
He was in gay humor, and asked what was the 
news. I said : " Mr. President, there is no news." 
" Ver}' well," he said ; " what are people talking 
about ? " " They are guessing who will be 
Taney's successor," I said, jocularly. Listantly 
ills countenance fell, and, with a grave and seri- 
ous expression, he said, pointing to a huge pile 
of telegrams and letters on his table : " I have 
been all day and yesterdav and the day before 
besieged by messages from my friends all over 
the country, as if there were a determination to 
put u|) the bars between Governor Chase and 
myself." Then, after a pause, he added : " But 1 
shall nominate him for Chief Justice neverthe- 



SALMON P. CHASE 



171 



less." Chase's nomination was sent in to the Sen- 
ate December 6th, in a messajje written in Lin- 




The Negro-Pew, [An Actual View.] 

cohi's own hand. His confirmation was imme- 
diate, and in the noble place of Chief Justice 
the ex-Secretary, ex-Governor, and ex-Scnator 
filled the highest expectations of his friends and 



172 STATESMEN 

covered his enemies with confusion. He pre- 
sided over the deliberations of tlie Senate, as 
required by law, when that body sat as a High 
Court of Impeachment,' listening to the charges 
preferred by the House in the matter of Andrew 
Johnson's alleged illegal proceeding in the at- 
tempt to remove Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary 
of War. In the midst of the excitements and 
factional heats that circled about the Capitol, 
only one man seemed immovable, calm, and un- 
impressible. That was the Chief Justice, who 
in imperturbable dignity presided over the High 
Court. To his wisdom, his calmness, and ju- 
dicial firmness that now historical tribunal owes 
its highest claim to the respect and gratitude of 
our people. 

As Chief Justice, Chase's labors were ardu- 
ous and excessive. He had borne a tremendous 
strain while he held the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury, during the most trying period of 
American history. He came to the duties of 
the Supreme Bench with a consciousness that 
his later activities had unfitted him for a judicial 
post, but no one could ever see that he lacked 
any of the qualities requisite for his duties. He 
overcame any obstacles that he might himself 
have seen by dint of the severest labor, and by 
studies the extent of which probablv not even 
the members of his family fully realized. He 
was a good judge, an honest jurist, and a stern, 
severe patriot. 

Undoubtedly the heavy tax upon his physical 
strength, great though that strength was, hast- 



SALMON P. CHASE 173 

ened the catastrophe in which his powers were 
finally involved in ruin. After one or two warn- 
ings in the form of slighter shocks, he was finally 
laid on the bed of sickness by a severe stroke of 
paralysis, from which he never recovered ; and 
he died on the 7th of May, 1873, having passed 
the age of seventy years. 

Chase's character was grave, serious, serene. 
He had little or no sense of humor, and, as 
his biographers have said, never told a story but 
to spoil it. He took life seriously and with 
a certain severity of conscientiousness which 
to many seemed excessive Puritanism. He was 
methodical, systematic, a rigid disciplinarian, 
punctilious in regard to all the forms of official 
and social intercourse, and he exacted of every 
subordinate the same loyalty to duty and the 
same exactness of statement which he himself 
rendered as a matter of conscience and of habit. 
His personal appearance was majestic and noble. 
His commandino- figure, six feet two inches 
high, was admirably proportioned. His head 
was massive ; his face wore an impress of dignity 
which was sometimes awful. He lacked the 
magnetism of Henry Clay and the godlike maj- 
esty of Daniel Webster ; but none who ever saw 
his towering form moving through the corridors 
of the Treasury Department, or clad in the 
robes of the Chief Justice, can ever forget the 
almost oracular appearance which inspired the 
veneration and respect of those who looked upon 
his figure or heard the slow, calm utterances of 
his voice. He was respected, even venerated. 



174 STATESMEN 

but he was never "popular" in the sense with 
which Americans use that word. His friends 
were devoted to his fortunes, but they were not 
reckoned as Clay and, Webster reckoned theirs 
— by hosts. His tastes were simple, his habits 
domestic, and his private and public character 
stainless. 

Demarest Lloyd, in an admirable sketch of 
Chase, printed in the Atlantic AlontJily soon 
after the death of the Chief Justice, says: " His 
will was his great power. This faculty in him 
probably more than any other contributed to his 
success. It was dominating and indomitable. 
It yielded to no man and to no force. Its per- 
sistency was measured only by the length of 
the task to be accomplished, and its firmness 
increased with the weight of interests that de- 
pended upon it; and while it no doubt short- 
ened his life, it again prolonged it. . . . All 
through these exciting and arduous periods he 
held himself firmly to his post. Then came the 
first shock that prostrated him, and first set the 
term beyond which he could hardly endure ; at 
this the will turned to repair its own ravages." 
Of Salmon P. Chase it may be trul}' said that 
his whole life was formed upon the moral incul- 
cated in his earliest youth — " Where there is a 
will there is a way." 



VII. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

It is difficult to see how anyone who believes 
in God and in His watchful interest in the affairs 
of nations and individuals, can study the story of 
Abraham Lincoln and not be impressed with the 
idea that here was a man divinely appointed and 
trained for a certain work. In the earlier chap- 
ters of this book we have seen how persistently 
the political power of slavery in the United 
States asserted itself. Good and patriotic men 
on both sides of the question had tried to put 
aside slavery and all that hung on that institu- 
tion, so that it should no longer appear in public 
affairs. Again and again they had, as they fond- 
ly thought, buried the whole matter so com- 
pletely out of sight that it never would be heard 
of again ; but, like an uneasy ghost, it continually 
came stalking in where it was neither expected 
nor desired. This could not be otherwise, in the 
very nature of things. Slavery was restless and 
aggressive. It could not be confined to the States 
in which it had existed for so many years unques- 
tioned. It was not the fault of the slave-holding 
States that human bondage was first made law- 
ful within their borders; and now that it was 
there, it could not be got rid of. 




Lincoln's Approved Likeness. 



This picture is after a photograph of Lincoln taken in Washington in 1862, and 
was given to Mr. Brooks by Mrs. Lincoln, with the remark that it was her hus- 
band's favorite likeness. When the picture, a miniature, was shown to Lincoln, 
and Mrs. Lincoln's remark repeated to him, he said, " I don't know that I have 
any favorite portrait of myself ; but I have thought that if I looked like any of the 
likenesses of me that have been taken, I look most like that one." The picture has 
never before been engraved. 



ABE AH AM LINCOLN 177 

What was more, slavery must have an outlet. 
The natural increase of the slaves would soon 
overstock the home market. There must be 
some way of disposing of this increasing surplus. 
Nor was this all. The area of the United States 
was frequently being added to by the acquisition 
of new territory in various directions. As these 
new territories should enter the Union of States, 
unless some of them came in as slave-holding 
States, the non-slave-holding States would soon 
outnumber those in which slavery existed ; and 
slavery needed legislation to enable itself to hold 
its own where it was already established. This 
law-making power could not be had if the free 
States outnumbered the slave States. Calhoun, 
who looked further ahead than most of the men 
of his time, saw that unless the newly acquired ter- 
ritory would be evenly divided between the slave- 
holding and the non-slave-holding States, the 
cherished institution was doomed. He worried 
greatly over the disturbance of the equilibrium 
in the Senate in favor of the non-slave-holding 
States, giving to these more votes in the Senate 
than the slave-holding States had. He died be- 
fore this actually happened, but up to his latest 
breath he insisted that every time a new State 
was taken into the Union as a free State, another 
must be taken in as a slave State. 

It was this determination to preserve " the 
equilibrium," of which Calhoun had so much to 
say, that forced the question of slavery to the 
surface every time we acquired territory from 
which new States were to be carved. As we 
12 



178 STATESMEN 

were constantly increasing our area in this way, 
slavery, anxious to secure an outlet and a market 
for its chattels, and equally determined to keep 
even the balance of power, if not inclining to its 
own side, made itself heard in boisterous advo- 
cacy of its claims. But the world was all the 
while growing more and more disposed to re- 
gard human bondage as wrong and wicked, and 
unless something were done to commit the whole 
Republic ot the United States to the perpetua- 
tion of slavery as a good thing, the time would 
soon come when that would not only be im- 
possible, but the bolder sort of anti-slavery men 
would even venture into an invasion of the right 
to hold slaves in States in which slavery had ex- 
isted for many years without serious objection 
from anybody. 

By dint of bullying, and by wheedling some 
of the Congressmen from the non-slave-holding 
States into their support, the representatives of 
the slave-holding States managed to stave off for 
a while the evil day when their absolute power 
in national affairs would be broken. Clay helped 
to postpone that day by compromises that gave 
him the name of the " Great Pacificator." Ben- 
ton, a representative from a slave-holding State, 
failed to see the necessity of providing room for 
slavery to grow in ; or, if he did see it, he did 
not care to make that provision. Webster was 
the awful example of a great genius blinded by 
a desire t(^ keep friendly relations with a slave- 
holding interest which his own people at home 
resrardcd with aversion. But Calhoun never for 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 179 

a moment lost sight of the fact that, unless his 
own people could maintain themselves against 
the rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment in the 
North and the insidious growth of free institu- 
tions in the newly acquired territories, slavery 
would have to fight for its own existence or 
would be obliged to leave the Federal Union, 
which would bring on another kind of a fight. 

Calhoun died while this catastrophe was draw- 
ing nigh, and when the forces that made it inev- 
itable were gathering cohesion. But the fight 
came at last, when the politics of the country 
showed that the free States were as strong as 
the slave States : if not a little stronger then, they 
would be in a clear majority before long. 

Now let us look at the character and training 
of the man who was to be the leader of the na- 
tion during that memorable and deadly contest 
— Abraham Lincoln. 

Many biographers lay great stress upon the 
condition of poverty, even squalor, into which 
Abraham Lincoln was born, as though that were 
not common to the whole Western country. It 
is true that Lincoln's parents wei"e very poor. 
His father, Thomas Lincoln, had migrated from 
place to place ever since he had come to man's 
estate, apparently always seeking for some fa- 
vored spot where the soil was rich enough to 
maintain a man with little or no labor. It does 
not appear that he ever found any such place, 
but up to the day of his death he was looking 
for it. When Abraham Lincoln was a boy (he 
was born in 1809) the depression of trade and 



180 STATESMEN 

commerce throughout the towns and villages of 
the old Thirteen States was very great. The 
War of 1812 had been finished, and the condi- 
tion of the countrv, after a brief period of pros- 
perity, was most deplorable. The value of im- 
ported goods brought into the United States 
from foreign parts was nearly four times as great 
as those exported. The public debt of the gov- 
ernment was $42,000,000, and the debts of the 
several States added together were about one- 
half that sum. Specie had gone out of the coun- 
try to pay for imports, and an almost worthless 
paper currency flooded the States and Terri- 
tories of the West. 

The consequences of a long embargo, when all 
American ports were closed to commerce, noth- 
ing going out and nothing coming in, were still 
felt in every town, city, and settlement in the 
broad land. The manufacturing industries of 
the republic were few and feeble, and imported 
articles were so dear as to be out of the reach of 
all but the rich. Thorns were used for pins, and 
bits of bone or slices of corn-cob were used for 
buttons; and, except in times of plenty, crusts of 
r3-e bread served as a substitute for coffee, and 
the dried leaves of currant-bushes were used in 
place of imported tea. The common drink of 
the people in the West was corn whiskey tem- 
pered with water, and the principal sustenance 
of the settlers was the wild game with which 
the woods swarmed. Bears, deer, woodchucks, 
raccoons, wild turkeys, and othcM- lurrcd and 
feathered creatures furnished the table and the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



181 



scanty wardrobe of the settlers. Every man 
and boy was a hunter and a trapper. It was a 
hard life ; hard for the children, hardest for the 
women. 

Abraham Lincoln in his eighth year was 
tall, ungainly, fast-growing, long-legged, and 




Lincoln's Early Honne at Elizabethtown, Ky. 

dressed in the garb of the frontier. He wore a 
shirt of homespun cotton and wool, dyed, if col- 
ored at all, with a mixture from the roots and 
barks of the forest. According to his own ac- 
count, he never wore stockings until he was " a 
young man grown." His feet were covered 
with rough cow-hide shoes, but oftener with 



182 STA TESMEN 

moccasons made by his mother's hands or pro- 
cured from the Indians. Deer-skin leggings or 
breeches and a hunting shirt of the same stuff 
completed his outfit, except for the 'coon-skin 
cap which adorned his shaggy head, the tail of 
the 'coon hanging down behind as an ornament 
and a convenient handle thereof. 

It was in the autumn of 1816 that the Lincolns 
took up their abode in the wilds of Indiana, hav- 
ing lately migrated from Kentucky. They lived 
in a log cabin built from logs felled by the father, 
Thomas Lincoln, with the slight assistance of 
his boy. There was no floor to this abode but 
the mother -earth, cleaned and pounded hard. 
Later on, when by a second marriage the neces- 
sity came for putting on a better appearance, a 
floor was laid of slabs of wood split from oak 
and hickory logs, laid on joists of timber and 
loosely kept in place by wooden pinions. Years 
afterward, when the pioneer boy had become 
the tenant of the White House, he could re- 
member how he lay in bed of a bitter, cold morn- 
ing, listening for his mother's footsteps rattling 
the slabs of the rough oaken floor as she came 
to rouse him from his pretended sleep. 

Early the lad learned the use of the axe, the 
maul, and the wedge. These, with the froe, a 
clumsy iron tool, were required for the splitting 
of rails and billets of wood to be used in the 
rough architecture and manufacture of the h(^me 
and its furniture. The lad's sinews were hard- 
ened, his hands toughened, and his mind stored 
with a knowledire of wood-craft and everv vari- 



ABllAIIAM LINCOLN 183 

ety t)f timber which he never [ori;ot. The fam- 
ily was surrounded with the forests. The times 
Avere superstitious, and the woods, to many of 
the people, were filled with strange noises, mys- 
terious whisperings, and wild, uncanny creatures. 
They heard the hollow murmur of distant streams 
and the low hum that goes up continually from 
the hidden life of the woods ; and in the silence 
and mysterious darkness of the forest young 
Lincoln found his most congenial place of medi- 
tation, though the hard-working lad had little 
time for solitary thought and communing with 
nature. But here, as he has himself said, he ac- 
quired habits of reflection, and he admitted that 
he did not like work any better than other 
boys of his age. He did like to spend hours in 
roaming the wild-wood, and never to the latest 
day of his life did he forget the traditions and 
the scenery of the wilderness in which his boy- 
hood was spent. 

Lincoln's mother died, in 1818, of a mysterious 
disease known as the " milk sick," which ravag-ed 
all that region, and is to this day recalled as a 
strange and uncatalogued species of pestilence. 
This was the lad's first great sorrow, and long 
after, when the spot where she was buried had 
been covered by the wreck of the forests, her 
son was wont to sa}^, " All that I am or hope to be 
I owe to my angel mother ; " and the first letter 
he ever wrote was written to a parson whom they 
had known in Kentucky, and whom the family 
now entreated to come and preach the funeral 
sermon over the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. 



1S4 STATESMEN 

Shiftless ThoiiKis Lincoln was now the only 
reliance of the little brood of children, the eld- 
est of which was Sarah, scarcely twelve years 
old ; Abe, two years younger ; and Dennis Hanks, 
an orphan cousin of yoinig Lincoln, a little oyer 
eight years old. After struggling with his ad- 
verse circumstances for a while alone, Thomas 
Lincoln went off and procured for himself a 
second wife. She was Sally Johnston, of Eliza- 
bethtown, Ky., and it was to her as much as 
to his own mother that Abraham owed much 
of his future comfort. He had already learned 
to read at his mother's knee. The three books 
he first absorbed were the Bible, " .Esop's Fables," 
and the " Pilgrim's Progress." On these three 
were formed the literary taste of Abraham Lin- 
coln. So diligently did he study them that he 
could repeat from memory many whole chapters 
of the Bible, all of the striking passages of Bim- 
yan's immortal book, and every one of the fables 
of ^Esop. ''The Life of Henry Clay," which 
his mother had managed to ]irocure for him, 
was his fourth and one of his choicest treasures. 
Ramsey's " Life of Washington," and another by 
Weems, were added by slow degrees to his slen- 
der stock of books. Wherever he heard of a 
book that could be borrowed, or eyen read on 
the premises of the owner, thither he went and 
gave the book-owner no peace until he had ab- 
sorbed it. With the coming of the step-mother, 
who was a woman of thrift and energ}^ came 
something like comfort into the log cabin of the 
Lincolns. She brought with her bedding, knives 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 185 

and forks, and nnmerous other things to which 
the little family had been nnaccnstomed. Then, 
as Lincoln said, he " began to feel like a hmnan 
being." Reading with him begot a desire to 
write, and as paper was a luxury almost out 
of the reach of the pi(jneer children of those 
days, he smoothed shingles or took the smooth 
side of a wooden shovel and composed there- 
on essays on topics of the time, and even occa- 
sionally tried verse-making. He learned to be 
concise in his literary style by the circumscribed 
character of his writing materials. He could 
not use many words when writing with a big 
piece of charcoal on a shingle. The future 
President of the United States acquired that 
habit of condensing his thoughts for which he 
was afterward famous, in a severe school. 

His step-mother said of him : " He read every- 
thing he could lay his hands on, and when he 
came across a passage that struck him, he would 
write it down on boards, if he had no })aper, and 
keep it by him until he could get paj^er. Then 
he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory, 
and repeat it." In this wav he collected a great 
many things from books that he did not own and 
could not keep, and at the age of ten he had set 
up a commonplace book in wdiich were written 
the noble thoughts and melodious lines of fa- 
mous men. Later, but while he was yet a callow 
youth, some of the literary productions of his 
own were thought good enough for publication 
in the county newspaper. Of schooling he had 
very little. Occasionally a school-teacher would 



186 f^TATESMhJN 

come into the iieii^hborhood, miles away perhaps, 
and the little brood of children — Abraham, his 
sister, and his cousin Dennis — would be sent to 
trudge through the wild-wood or through the 
snow to the log schoolhouse. 

When he was seventeen years old he walked 
a long distance to attend court, where he heard 
one of the famous Breckinridges, of Kentucky, 
make a notable speech in a murder trial. The 
lawyer's effort stirred the sleeping genius of the 
lad, and from that day he practised speech-mak- 
ing. He would take up any topic that happened 
to be uppermost in the rural neighborhood — 
road-building, laying out trails, school-tax, boun- 
ty on wolves or bears — and, as he called it, 
" speechify " to the gaping rustics who stood 
around to hear him deliver his semi-humorous 
and extemporane(^us addresses. Sometimes he 
would get up a mock trial and arraign an imag- 
inary culprit, and, himself acting as prosecuting 
attorney, counsel for the defendant, judge, and 
jury, go through the formula and the addresses 
of a regular court. This entertainment inter- 
fered with the work of the people and was 
forbidden by his father, who grumbled, " When 
Abe begins to speak, all hands flock to hear 
him." 

One notable thing about this lad was that 
when he had begun to study anything he was 
never satisfied until he had got to the root of it. 
He wrote and rewrote all that he wanted to 
commit to memory. No difficult problem would 
he give up ; and when he encountered a fact 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 187 

which to him seemed inexiilicahle, he never 
rested until it was explained and he had mas- 
tered its secret. In all things he was thorough. 
Years afterward, when he was President, and a 
person came to him with a story of a plot or 
conspiracy, with very little information to back 
up his tale, Lincoln said : " There is one thing I 
have learned and you have not. It is only one 
word — 'thorough.'" Bringing his hand down 
on the table with a thump to emphasize his 
meaning, he repeated, " Thorough." 

Although he never played cards, never learned 
to dance, never drank any intoxicating liquors of 
any sort whatsoever, and never used a profane 
word, he was an important figure in the rude 
frolics of the settlement. He very soon acquired 
an enormous store of amusing stories. He was 
a good mimic, and in wrestling matches he was 
renowned. When seventeen years old he had 
attained his full height, six feet four inches ; and 
a powerful and muscular youth was he. But his 
giant strength was never used to oppress or to 
annoy. In sport he tried his muscular powers 
of endurance, and many a time he interfered as 
a peacemaker to break up what seemed to be a 
dangerous fight. Far and wide in the sparsely 
settled country where he lived he w^as famed for 
his good nature, his enormous strength, and his 
readiness to lend a hand in any work or sport. 
But we can well understand how he was re- 
garded with strange curiosity by the rude, unlet- 
tered pioneers, who scarcely understood why 
this tough clodhopper should spend all his spare 



188 STATESMEN 

time in poring over Ixjuks autl in the writing 
which to them seemed so mysterious and useless. 

When he was eighteen >ears old he had his 
first glimpse of the world outside the woody 
settlement of Southern Indiana. He built with 
his own hands a boat, which, being loaded with 
products of the neigliborhood, was paddled 
down stream to the nearest trading-post, where 
the cargo was disposed of. Here he saw a steam- 
boat coming up the river, and being engaged by 
two wayfarers to take them and their trunks out 
to the steamer from the bank, he was paid two 
silver half-dollars, his first great earnings. " I 
could scarcely believe my eyes," he said, years 
afterward. " You may think it a very little thing, 
but it was the most important incident in my life. 
I could scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had 
earned a dollar in less than a dav. The \vorld 
seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a 
more hopeful and confident being from that 
time." 

Two years later he went down the Mississippi 
River to New Orleans as a flat-boatman, where 
he had a series of entertaining adventures and 
saw still more of the great world. Shortly after 
his return his father moved again — this time to 
Illinois — and on the fifteen-day journey to the 
fat lands of Macon County, where the old man 
expected to find milk and honey flowing, Lin- 
coln drove the ox-wagon which carried the house- 
hold goods ; and when the family once more cast 
anchor, another log cabin was built, and Abra- 
ham not only played a man's part in felling the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 189 

logs and building the cabin, but also, with his 
cousin, Thomas Hanks, he split the rails that 
fenced in the fifteen acres which were to be put 
under cultivation. This done, young Abraham 
" struck out for himself." He was ready to do 
work wherever he could get it, and again as a 
flat-boatman he made another venture to New 
Orleans, where he got his first glimpse of slav- 
ery. It has been put on record by one of his 
companions that his heart bled, " and slaverv 
ran its iron into him then and there." He lived 
several yeai-s at New Salem, one of those little 
mushroom villages that rise and fall in the un- 
easy movement of a new population, and his 
succeeding years were homeless, half the time 
working and half the time idling, and without 
any special aim in life except to gain food and 
shelter. He was a pilot on a steamboat, clerk in 
a store or a mill, and drifting about from time 
to time, always in pursuit of something better. 
Somehow, " tending " a countr}' stoi"e suited him 
best; it gave him leisure to read, study, and 
meditate. 

As a wrestler and an athlete, the tall, gaunt 
young Kentuckian soon acquired great fame, 
and in an encounter with a party of overgrown 
30ung men of Clary's Grove, a settlement not 
far from New Salem, he gave them a test of his 
quality. The entire gang were ready to break 
in and interrupt a wrestling-bout between him- 
self and one Jack Armstrong, when his antag- 
onist, resorting to foul play, so roused the 
wrath (jf Lincoln that, putting forth all his 



tl ^-^ 



"^^ 



^%'^''^^7^r %^^ 







ABRAHAM LINCOLN 191 

giant strength, he flung Armstrong in the air, 
the legs of the champion of the Clary's Grove 
boys whirling madly around his head. At this 
astounding performance the entire party made a 
dead set against the new-comer, who was calmly 
waiting their onset, when the vanquished cham- 
pion chivalrously demanded a truce. Shaking 
Lincoln by the hand, he said : " Boys, Abe Lin- 
coln is the best fellow that ever broke into this 
settlement. He shall be one of us." Lincoln 
by general consent became the peacemaker 
and the arbitrator of all the petty quarrels 
of the neighborhood ; shunning vulgar brawls 
himself, he attempted to keep others out of 
them, and when debate around the door of the 
cross-roads store grew too animated and blows 
came in to settle disputes, the terrific windmill of 
Lincoln's long arms invariably brought peace. 
One of the luxuries of that time with him was 
a subscription to the Louisville Courier, then 
edited by that famous Whig, George D. Pren- 
tice, and to secure the paper Lincoln denied 
himself necessary clothing. He was studying 
politics. 

The Black Hawk War, a disturbance in the 
northern part of Illinois in 1832, called forth 
his patriotism and energies, and at the head 
of a little company of volunteers he marched 
to the relief of the panic-stricken country. It 
was here that he secured his first and only mar- 
tial honor. It was the title of Captain. In this 
capacity he saved the life of an old savage who 
had strayed from his own camp, and was res- 



192 STATESMEN 

cued from instant death by Lincoln, who inter- 
posed, at the risk of his own life, between his 
soldiers and the wanderer. Returnini^ home 
— the war soon over^he was a candidate for 
the Lei^islature, and was brcjught into contact 
with many of the prominent men of the State, 
and he took the stump in his own behalf. In 
this yenture he was defeated ; but the next year 
he was more successfid, and then seryed in the 
State Lci^islature three terms. It was here that 
his political ambition became aroused, and es- 
pousing- the then popidar policy of the Whigs 
— internal improvements— he helped to project 
a great variety of improyements, very few of 
which ever took on material shape. But he did, 
however, plume himself gi'eatly on his success 
in changing the capital from Vandalia to Spring- 
field — a piece of political management which in 
later years he regarded with amusement and 
contempt. In Springfield he now " hung out 
his shingle " as a lawyer. He had read Black- 
stone — almost committed the work to memory — 
and had b}' practising in a small way among his 
neighbors secured a fair legal education, and was 
readily admitted to the Bar. He had under- 
taken small cases on trial before the local jus- 
tice of the peace, and had been " everybody's 
friend." He had tried his hand, too, at survey- 
ing, and was in fact a jack-of-all-trades, readily 
turning his hand to every form of activity re- 
quired in a raw, new country like that in which 
he lived. His very first case in the United 
States Circuit Court he threw up, with the dec- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 193 

laration that on careful examination he found all 
the authorities on the other side and none on 
his. This characteristic honesty of purpose and 
frankness of opinion was only part and parcel of 
his character, already well formed. He was the 
protector of the innocent and the oppressed, the 
prosecutor of wrong-doing, and, with his habit 
of going thoroughly to the bottom of things, 
was usually able to convince any jury of the jus- 
tice of his case ; and the appeals he made to rea- 
son were so fervid that his hearers were often 
astonished and, as we may say, convinced against 
their will. 

On the stump, as a frequent candidate for 
the Legislature, or an advocate of the political 
claims of other men, he made himself so accept- 
able to the gatherings of the neighborhood that 
he always drew a crowd wherever he went; and 
in the chats that followed as the concourse broke 
up into groups when speaking was over, Lincoln 
learned the ways and manners of the different 
communities that came together, weaving their 
lines of limited travel to and fro as these occa- 
sions came and went. His knowledge of human 
nature and of the plain people, already very 
great, was wonderfully increased by these expe- 
riences. He early put himself on record as op- 
posed to the further extension of the American 
system of human slavery. He was one of two 
signers to a protest on the subject of domestic 
slavery, which was received and spread on the 
journals of the General Assembly of Illinois. 
The backwoods stories, the legends of Indian 
13 



19-i STATESMEN 

fightings and superstitions, the folk-lore of a 
generation, and the latest political and social 
gossip of the frontier were poured into the re- 
ceptive mind of the man who in later years was 
to be a thoroughly equipped master of human 
nature as human nature is developed in the life 
of the American people. 

In 1846 he was elected a Representative in 
Congress, after several disappointments. His 
competitor on the Democratic ticket was Peter 
Cartwright, a famous backwoods preacher and 
exhorter, whose popularity was supposed to be 
so great that Lincoln would be literally nowhere 
in the race ; but w^hen Lincoln took the stump 
for himself he had plenty of material for his ad- 
dresses to the people. The new State of Texas 
had been just admitted to the Union, and the 
slavery question was now once more before the 
people for adjustment. One of the first acts of 
his Congressional career, which was not an es- 
pecially brilliant one, was to offer a series of res- 
olutions calling on the President (James K. Polk) 
to inform the House as to certain facts involved 
in the war which followed the annexation of 
Texas. Another was the introduction of a bill 
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. 
Thus early did he take his stand on the burning 
question which was destined to occupy so much 
of his life and energy in the years to come. 

His term in Congress over, he sought from the 
new Whig President, General Taylor, the place 
of C(Mnmissioner of the General Land Office, 
whei-e he hoped to make useful the knowledge 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



195 



that he had acquired as a land-surveyor, and to 
help carry out some of his ambitious schemes for 
internal improvements. He was disappointed, 
and later on, when the Territorial Governorship 
of Oregon was offered to him, he hesitated, but 
finally declined it. Returning- to Springfield, he 




Tiie Home of Lincoln at Springfield, III. 

took up his duties as an attorney, and again 
plunged into politics, when the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill of 1854 roused the country once more to a 
sense of impending danger from slavery. It was 
at this time that he went to the Eastern States — 
one of the few liberal Whigs of the West — to 
support the nominees for the party. He appeared 



196 STATESMEN 

to look with disfavor on the Free Soil party, then 
coming into existence, and claimed that the anti- 
slavery proclivities of the Whig party, were suf- 
ficient guaranty that that organization would 
do its best to mollify the acerbities of the con- 
flict. The North was aflame with the excite- 
ment which followed the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise and the passage of Douglas's Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill. Stephen A. Douglas returned 
to Illinois, from which State he w^as United States 
Senator, but was called to account for his stew- 
ardship. He made a speech at Springfield, 111., 
where, for the first time, he met in debate Abra- 
ham Lincoln, who was to be his most dreaded 
adversary. Douglas spoke to the people in justi- 
fication of his course in Congress and in defence 
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Next day Lincoln 
replied to Douglas, and all accounts agree that 
his was a wonderful and memorable speech. It 
was in this speech that Lincoln gave one of his 
memorable sayings. When replying to Douglas 
he said : " I admit that the emigrant to Kansas 
and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, 
but I deny his right to govern any other person 
without that person's consent." At another point 
in his speech he said: ''In the view of Judge 
Douglas, the question whether a new country 
shall be slave or free is a matter of as utter indif- 
ference as it is whether his neighbor was to plant 
his farm with t(^bacco or stock it with horned 
cattle.'' At the close of a speech in Peoria. 111., 
Douglas said to Lincoln: "You understand this 
question of j)rohibiting slaverv in the Territories 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 197 

better than all the opposition in the Senate of the 
United States. 1 cannot make anything by de- 
bating it with you. You, Lincoln, have here and 
at Springfield given me more trouble than all 
the opposition in the Senate combined." Doug- 
las appealed to Lincoln's magnanimity to agree 
that there should be no more joint discussions, 
and to this Lincoln reluctantly assented. 

The Legislature elected that year in Illinois 
(in 1854) was to choose a Senator who should be 
a colleague with Douglas. When the election 
was over it was found that the anti-Douglas men 
were in a majority, but they were not united. 
Some of them were in favor of Lyman Trumbull 
and some of Abraham Lincoln, and after ten un- 
successful ballots Lincoln persuaded his friends 
to vote for Trumbull, who was thereupon elected. 
This generous concession on the part of Lincoln 
solidified the anti-Douglas party in the Legis- 
lature, and was greatly praised by those who 
knew that Trumbull had never been the political 
friend of Lincoln, but usually his opponent and 
unfriendly critic. 

In jNLav, 1856, the Republican party of the 
State of Illinois was born in a convention held 
at Bloomington. Lincoln's advice was sought, 
and he said : " Let us in building our new party 
make our corner-stone the Declaration of Lide- 
pendence. Let us build on this rock, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against us." And 
Lincoln's idea was embodied in this resolution 
adopted by the convention : " Resolved, that we 
hold, in accordance with the opinions and prac- 



198 STATESMEN 

tices of all the great statesmen of all parties, for 
the first sixty years of the administration of the 
government, that under the Constitution, Con- 
gress possesses full power to prohibit slavery in 
the Territories ; and that, while we will maintain 
all constitutional rights of the South, we also 
hold that justice, humanity, the principles of 
freedom as expressed in our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and our National Constitution, and the 
purity and perpetuitv of our government, re- 
quire that that power shall be exerted to prevent 
the extension of slavery into Territories here- 
tofore free." In the election which followed, 
Buchanan was the regular Democratic candidate, 
Douglas having been defeated in the nominating 
convention. John C. Fremont was the candi- 
date of the Republicans, and Millard Fillmore 
of a third party known as the American party. 
The campaign was virulent, feverish, and excited. 
Lincoln took the field for the Republican ticket, 
which was, however, defeated — altliough Bissell, 
the Republican candidate for Governor of Illi- 
nois, was elected — the electoral vote of the State 
being given to Buchanan. 

Two years later, when the Senatorial term of 
Douglas was drawing to a close, he was once 
more pitted against Lincoln, who had now be- 
come the leader of the Rejiublicans of his own 
State. They refused to trust Douglas, and in 
open convention declared that Abraham Lincoln 
was their first and only choice for the United 
States Senate to fill the vacancy about to be cre- 
ated b}' the expiration of Dt)uglas's term of 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 199 

office. The two candidates now took the field 
in one of the most famous political contests ever 
witnessed in this country. They arranged for a 
series of joint debates at different points through- 
out the State. When Lincoln read the manu- 
script of his speech to an intimate friend, that 
gentleman was dismayed by finding that the 
key-note of the speech was in its first sentence : 
" A house divided against itself cannot stand. I 
believe this government cannot endure perma- 
nently half slave and half free." Lincoln's friends 
urged that while this was all perfectly true, it 
would be hardly discreet to make so bold and 
radical an announcement at that time. People 
were still very tender on the subject of slavery, 
and the epithets " Abolitionist " and " Black 
Republican " were freely bandied, much to the 
chagrin of the followers of the new party. De- 
fending his phrase, " A house divided against it- 
self," Lincoln said in reply : " This proposition 
has been true for six thousand years. I will de- 
liver the speech as it is written." And he did. 
In the course of that address he said: " I do not 
expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not ex- 
pect the house to fall; but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided: it will become all one thing 
or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, and place it 
where the public mind will rest in the belief that 
it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its 
advocates will push it forward until it shall be- 
come lawful in all States, old as well as new, 
North as well as South." 



200 ,S TA TES^rEN 

This wonderful debate attracted nuiltitudes ni 
people far and wide. Wherever the two cham- 
pions appeared, vast throngs of people congre- 
gated and listened with delight, or cheered with 
boisterous enthusiasm their favorites as each 
made what they considered to be unanswerable 
arguments against each other. Lincoln's hercu- 
lean form towered far above the audience which 
he addressed. His face was dark and seamed, 
his eyes deep -set beneath overhanging and 
shaggy brows ; beardless was his face, and a far- 
away look on his often-sad features at times 
struck even casual observers as profoundly pa- 
thetic. But his manner, w^hen he was alert, was 
bright, and even jovial, and in speaking he im- 
pressed every one with his directness, simplicity, 
good sense, clearness of statement, wit and hu- 
mor, and absolute fairness. 

The two important topics before the country 
then w^ere the Dred Scott decision — bv w-hich 
slavery was declared to be constitutional and 
right and lawful in the Territ(^ries — and the 
struggle then going on in Kansas between Free- 
State and Slave-State men. Douglas's favorite 
doctrine of popular sovereignty w^as to the effect 
that the people in the Territories had the right 
to vote slavery up or down as they liked ; but 
the Dred Scott decision of Judge Taney was to 
the effect that slavery w^as already in the Terri- 
tories. Obviously, these two propositions were 
irreconcilable. It was Lincoln's purpose to com- 
pel Douglas to say w^hether he thought slavery 
right or wrong in itself. In his view the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLI^ 201 

Drcd Scott decision and the Douglas idea of 
popular scjvereignty could not be held together 
in one man's belief. So he framed questions de- 
signed to bring the matter before Douglas in 
such a shape as to oblige him to admit or deny 
the abstract right of slavery. Lincoln's friends 
remonstrated with him. " If you put that ques- 
tion to him," they said, " he will perceive that the 
answer, giving practical force and effect to the 
Dred Scott decision in the Territories, inevitably 
loses him the battle, and he will therefore reply by 
offering the decision as an abstract principle, but 
denying its practical application. He will say 
that the decision is just and right, but it is not to 
be put into force and effect in the Territories." 
" If he takes that chute," said Lincoln, " he can 
never be President." Lincoln's anxious friends 
replied, " That is not your lookout ; you are 
after the Senatorship." " No, gentlemen," he 
said, " I am killing larger game. The battle of 
i860 is worth a hundred of this." It is barely 
possible that Lincoln even then saw so far ahead 
as to think he might be the Republican candi- 
date for the Presidency in i860; but the chances 
are that he was thinking of the battle for freedom 
and not of himself. For his time had not yet 
come. Douglas was elected LTnited States Sena- 
tor, although the number of votes polled in the 
election for members of the Legislature were more 
in Lincoln's favor than in Douglas's ; but as there 
were certain hold-over Senators whose votes were 
to be counted in the election of United States 
Senator, the real victory rested with Douglas, 



202 STATESMEN 

From that contest emcrired the i^reat, majestic 
figure of Abraham Lincohi, easih' the leader and 
champion of the Free-Soil party of the West. 
The joint debate attracted attention not onl}- in 
the West, but all over the United States, and 
wherever the political situation was discussed 




The St. Gauden's Statue of Lincoln at Lincoln Park, Chicago. 

there was heard the name of Lincoln. His 
greatest power as a debater was the charm of his 
individualitv. His voice was rather high and 
shrill, his figure awkward, and his movements 
ungraceful ; but the strong S3'mpathetic ele- 
ment that dominated his nature was alwavs 
[jcrceptible through ever^ything he said or did. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 203 

He was pre-eminently a man of the people, the 
people's advocate ; he was of " the plain people." 
He understood their joys, their sorrows, their 
hopes, their ambitions. He entered more fully 
into their sympathies than any public man who 
ever lived, and as the contest drew on when the 
last battle in the field of politics should be fought 
between freedom and slavery, he gradually be- 
came the people's champion as against a great 
wrong, rather than the champion and advocate 
of any great moral or political principle. From 
this time forth we must recognize him as speak- 
ing alwavs in the capacity of an attorney for the 
people. Not only here, but later on, when the 
war for the Union had bcgim, and when it was 
at its height, he always aimed to be the agent 
and the instrument of the people. 

The Republicans of Illinois at their annual 
convention, in May, 1859, formally presented 
Lincoln as their candidate for the Presidency 
in i860. During the convention some of the 
pioneers or earlier settlers of the State made 
their entry into the hall of the convention with 
the announcement that a Macon County Demo- 
crat had a contribution at the door. The curi- 
osity of the delegates was stimulated and they 
looked to see two ancient fence-rails, decorated 
with ribbons of red, white, and blue, borne into 
the hall by Thomas Hanks, on the rails being 
the inscription, " Abraham Lincoln, the Rail 
Candidate for the Presidency in i860. Two 
rails from a lot of three thousand made in 1830 
by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose 



204 STATEF^MEN 

father was the first pioneer in Macon County." 
Years afterward, Lincohi being asked it he 
supposed those were the real rails that he and 
Hanks had made, said : " 1 would not make 
an affidavit that they were ; but Hanks and I 
did make rails on that piece of ground, although ' 
I think I could make better rails now, and I did 
say that if there were any rails that we had split, 
I should not wonder if thcjse were the rails." 
This was as near to verifying the authenticity 
of those celebrated rails as Lincoln was willing 
to go, and it may be added that he profoundly 
disapproved of the whole proceeding. 

Early in i860, Lincoln was invited to speak in 
Brooklyn, N. Y., but the place of assembly was 
finally changed to Cooper Union, New York, 
one of the largest halls in the United States, 
which was filled to overflowing with a tremen- 
dous crowd of people anxious to hear the noted 
orator from the West. It is a matter of record 
that when he rose to speak the people were dis- 
appointed. He was ill-dressed ; his bushy head, 
with the stiff, black hair thrown back, was bal- 
anced on a long, lean head-stalk, and when he 
raised his hands in an opening gesture, the im- 
pression he gave was one of great awkwardness. 
The tones of his voice at first were low and 
husky, and a visible expression of dismay spread 
over the face of his audience ; but very soon 
he roused himself, and as the magic of his elo- 
quence flowed out, men forgot his appearance, 
and the man was lost sight of in the orator. It 
may be said that this speech not only was brill- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 205 

iantly successful as an eloquent exposition of the 
doctrines of the Republican party, but it gave 
Lincoln great and instant vogue throughout the 
older States of the Union. His theme was a say- 
ing of Douglas, " Our fathers when they framed 
the government under which we live understood 
the question (the question of slavery) just as well, 
and even better, than we do now." His speech 
was an inquiry into what the fathers who framed 
the government thought and did about slavery, 
and all who heard that address marvelled great- 
ly at its logic, its keen analysis, and its lucid and 
unimpeachable English. The audience at times 
was swept by a whirlwind of applause. 

The time for holding the Republican National 
Convention drew on, and that body assembled in 
Chicago, June 17, i860. The candidates named 
were William H. Seward, Abraham Lincoln, 
Simon Cameron, Salmon P. Chase, Edward 
Bates, and John McLean. Seward was at first 
the leading candidate, but the enthusiasm in 
the galleries and in the crowds that surrounded 
the vast building where the convention was 
held was probably a factor in the influences 
that ultimately compelled the nomination of 
Lincoln. He was nominated on the third bal- 
lot, a large majority of the anti-Seward men 
finally going over to Lincoln and making his 
nomination a certainty. The liberal wing of 
the Democratic party nominated Stephen A. 
Douglas, and the extreme pro-slavery wing nom- 
inated John C. Breckinridge. The campaign 
that followed was conducted with tremendous 



206 



ST A TESMEN 



and sincere enthusiasm on the anti-slavx-ry side, 
while the Democrats, divided between Douglas 
and Breckinridge, fought in a half-hearted way, 
and Lincoln was elected President b}^ a majority 
of fifty-seven electoi"al votes. Almost as soon as 
this result was announced several of the States 
announced their intention to leave the Union. 




Stephen A. Douglas. 

The ordinance of secession was adopted by 
South Carolina, November 17, i860; by Missis- 
sippi, January 9, 1861 ; Florida, Januar}- loth ; 
Alabama, February nth; Georgia, Januarv 
19th ; Louisiana, January 25th, and Texas, Feb- 
ruary I St, and by the time Lincoln was ready 
to leave Springfield for Washington to take 
the oath of office, seven States had declared 
themselves out of the Union. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 207 

His inaugural address was an argument and a 
plea. Among other things he said : " The power 
confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 
possess the property and places belonging to the 
government." This was in direct opposition to 
the opinion of the " anti-coercionists," as they 
were called, who said that the forts and military 
posts and navy-yards in the Southern States be- 
longed to the seceding States as " their share " 
ot the property of the government. He also 
argued against the possibility of complete sepa- 
ration, saying : " Physically speaking, we cannot 
separate ; we cannot remove our respective sec- 
tions from each other, nor build an impassable 
wall between them." And while he showed 
that they must remain face to face, either as 
friends or enemies, and it would be more to the 
advantage of both that they should make their 
intercourse that of friends than as aliens, he 
argued that the whole matter in dispute should 
be left to all the people. He said : " While the 
people retain their virtue and vigilance, no ad- 
ministration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, 
can very seriously injure the government in the 
short space of four years." Throughout his 
speech he pleaded earnestly for union, peace, 
and harmony ; but these arguments, it must be 
said, were addressed rather to the North than 
to the South. He desired that people should 
see that no reasonable concession would be neg- 
lected and no entreaty unspoken to win back 
and keep in the Union the wayward children of 
the South. In the kindest language he showed 



208 



STATES M EX 



how ill-advised secession must be, and asked that 
for their own sakes the secessionists should de- 
sist from carrying out their mad plans. He in- 
sisted that while it was not their duty to destroy 
the Union, it was his duty to preserve it, and 
while he hoped to do this without war or blood- 




Gideon Welles. 



shed, he declared with emphasis that it was his 
fixed purpose to do his whole duty by the whole 
country. 

It is to be noticed that in the making-up of 
the Cabinet four of the seven members thereof 
had been candidates for the Presidential nomina- 
tion at Chicago. William H. Seward was Secre- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 209 

tar}' of State ; Simon Cameron, Secretary of 
War ; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury ; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy ; 
Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General ; Caleb 
B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior ; Edward 
Bates, Attorney-General. 

Lincoln's supposed rawness, his unfamiliarity 
with statecraft, and his Western habits were by 
many believed to unfit him for the higher duties 
of statesmanship. More than one of his consti- 
tutional advisers was willing to take the respon- 
sibility of shaping the policy of the administra- 
tion and carrying out plans for the solution of 
the appalling situation now forced upon the 
country. Mr. Seward, for example, proposed to 
divert the attention of the people from the 
threatened war in the South by provoking a 
series of foreign wars with other powers who 
had perhaps given occasion for offence. But 
with great calmness, Lincoln took into his own 
hands the direction of affairs, and as "the attor- 
ney for the people of the United States," he now 
began to organize ways and means, assisted by 
the members of his Cabinet, to crush the Re- 
bellion. 

From this time forward he was steadily actu- 
ated by but one purpose — to save the Union. 
For this he said he would sacrifice everything 
else ; he would save the Union with slavery or 
without it, he would save the Union by war or 
without war, he would save the Union by using 
civil and military power, or he would save it by 
laying aside those powers so far as was practi- 
14 



210 STATESMEN 

cable ; and the words most frequent on his lips 
were, " The Rebellion by all means to crush." 
In the conduct of the war which followed he 
constantly deferred to the wishes of the people, 
and when many of the more radical members of 
the Republican party urged an immediate eman- 
cipation of the slaves, or similar measures, he 
put them aside with various excuses; and al- 
though he incurred their dislike, if not their en- 
mity, by his apparently too conservative course, 
he persisted in waiting until the time was ripe, 
never hurrying events, but always listening for 
the voice of the people. On one occasion, after 
McClellan had ceased for some time to be com- 
mander of the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln 
said to the writer of these lines: "I kept Mc- 
Clellan in command long after I had ceased to 
expect that he would win any victories, simply 
because I knew that his dismissal would provoke 
popular indignation and shake the faith of the 
people in the final success of the war." And if 
Lincoln had any fixed and individual opinions 
about the smaller details of the conduct of the 
war, he never forced them upon the public or 
upon those who were entrusted with the direc- 
tion of military affairs. He was so deferential 
and so ready to accept the judgment of those 
whom he believed to be superior to him in tech- 
nical knowledge, that he sometimes provoked 
others who had great faith in his administrative 
abilities, and possibly in his military knowledge ; 
but at all times, by his vigor, his firmness, and 
his unshrinking determination, Lincoln showed 




I'LL' 






'"'rwy,,.. 




I I 

1 J ' 






iV, 



WM/tt \' 



The National Lincoln Monunnent at Spnngfield, 111. 



212 STATESMEN 

the world that he, and not another, was the Pres- 
ident of the United States. 

He knew that " the plain people " were ready 
from the first to fight in defence of the Union ; 
he knew that they were not at first ready to fight 
for the destruction of slavery ; and so he perpet- 
ually put off every movement that was designed 
to promote the abolition of slaver}^ and called 
constantly for soldiers to defend the Union. He 
even went so far as to countermand the orders 
of some of the generals in the field who were 
willing to hasten the day of emancipation. It is 
possible that he may have seen the ultimate 
effect of this policy ; it is certain that if the 
armies of the Union had early crushed the Re- 
bellion, slavery would have been saved. But 
the events of the war, overruled by the hand of 
Providence, prolonged the struggle beyond all 
expectation, and finally made the further exist- 
ence of slavery an impossibility. In the long 
contest that followed, the strongholds of slavery 
were one by one demolished, and at last, by the 
Emancipation proclamation issued by the Presi- 
dent, and later ratified by the action of Congress, 
the death-blow was dealt to that institution. 

On July 21, 1862, Lincoln's Cabinet was as- 
tonished when he laid before them the out- 
line of a proclamation declaring free the slaves 
of all the States that shoidd be in rebellion 
against the United States on Januarv i, 1863. 
As a matter of fact, he had made up his mind 
that this blow was inevitable, and the only ques- 
tion in his mind was when it should fall, and it 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 213 

was to ask the advice of his Cabinet that he laid 
before them this document. x\t the suggestion 
of Secretary Seward the issuing of the proc- 
lamation was deferred for a time, as just then 
disaster and defeat had met the armies in almost 
every direction, and Seward thought that such a 
proclamation would then sound like "the last 
shriek of a perishing cause." The proclamation 
was postponed. Other defeats followed, and 
when Lee invaded Maryland, just before the bat- 
tle of Antietam, Lincoln made a vow that if the 
Union army should now be blessed with success, 
the decree of freedom should be proclaimed. 
The victory of Antietam was won on September 
17, 1862, and the Emancipation proclamation was 
issued on the 22d of that month. After so many 
years, slavery was dead. 

There were yet other disasters in the field, and 
it was not until the battle of Gettysburg had 
been fought and the citadel of Vicksburg taken 
that men began to see the day breaking. States- 
men and politicians worried the good President 
with their plans for reconstructing the Union, 
and with their objections to his plans. They 
found fault with his readiness to adapt himself 
to differing conditions in different States where 
the Federal authority had been re-established, 
and they found fault with the way in which he 
put these things before the people. For example, 
one nio-ht, when he had addressed a crowd of 
cheering people who had come to greet hnn at 
the White House after a famous victory by 
Grant, he made use of the phrase " The rebels 



214 STATESMEN 

turned tail and ran." Not long afterward, when 
he was to make a more extended address, 1 was 
invited by him to be near him at the historic 
window in the White House whence he was used 
to speak t(^ the people. Noting- my look of sur- 
prise at the roll of manuscript he had in his hand, 
just before we left the parlor for the upper part 
of the house he said : " It is true that I don't usu- 
ally read a speech, but I am going to say some- 
thing to-night that may be important. I am go- 
ing to talk about I'econstruction, and sometimes 
I am betrayed into saying things that other peo- 
ple don't like. In a little off-hand talk I made 
the other day I used the phrase ' Turned tail 
and ran.' A gentleman from Boston was very 
much offended by that, and I hope he won't be 
offended again." On the way upstairs the Presi- 
dent turned to me and said, with a queer smile: 
" The gentleman from Boston was Senator Sum- 
ner." The speech that night was a justification 
of wliat had been done in Louisiana by way of 
reconstruction, a provisional government having 
been evolved from the military goyernment that 
had been set up after the occupation of the State 
by the Federal forces. In the course of his ad- 
dress, which was clearly not what the vast and 
jubilant crowd had expected, Lincoln said : " We 
shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the eoi^g 
than by smashing it." But Sumner was no better 
pleased with this than with the other figure of 
speech ; for, in a letter to Dr. Lieber next day, 
he said : " The President's speech and other 
things augur confusion and uncertainty in the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 215 

future, with hot controversy. Alas ! alas ! " And 
in his tribute to Senator Collamer, later in that 
year (1865), Sumner said: "The eggs of croco- 
diles can produce only crocodiles, and it is not 
easy to see how eggs laid by military power can 
be hatched into an American State." 

But in all these things the people loved and 
trusted Lincoln. They looked to him as their 
father. The quaint title "Father Abraham" 
with them meant something more than a hu- 
morous nickname. They knew that he wept 
with them and laughed with them, that he sor- 
rowed in their sorrows and entered into their 
affairs almost like a providence, the hold he 
had upon the people was not so much by 
virtue of a commanding intellect and a super- 
nal eloquence (though these were also his), 
as rather by virtue of his loving and tender 
heart, his profound sympathy with all sorts 
and conditions of men, his unfailing patience, 
magnanimity, and good nature, his abounding 
charity for all, and above all, his homely like- 
ness to the plain people from whom he sprung, 
and of whom he was one to the last day of his 
life. 

Lincoln was renominated and re-elected in 
the midst of the closing struggles of the civil 
war. This was the final test of his power with 
the people. There had been some factious op- 
position to his renomination. He had been 
opposed in the national canvass by a military 
commander, McClellan ; and when his hour of 
victory came it was by an overwhelming and 



21G STATESMEN 

tremendous popular vote, that left in the minds 
of men no question ol the imdying and deeply 
rooted love of the American people for Abra- 
ham Lincoln. In this day of triumph a lesser 
man than he would have exulted over those 
of his own political faith who were thus de- 
livered into his hand. But his great and mag- 
nanimous soul held no thought of unkindness 
for those who had wounded him so deeply. 
Serenaded at the White House on the night 
next succeeding the November election of 1864, 
he said : " Now that the election is over, may 
not all, having a common interest, reunite in 
a common effort to save our common country? 
For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, 
to place no obstacle in the way. So long as I 
have been here, I have not willingly planted a 
thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deep- 
ly sensible to the high compliment of a re-elec- 
tion, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that 
any other man may be pained or disappointed 
by the result. May I ask those who were with 
me to join with me in the same spirit toward 
those who were against us ? " '' 

Lincoln's second inaugural address should be 
read with the first, if one would study the results 
wrought out in Lincoln's mind by four years of 
stress and strain as the head of the nation dur- 
ing a civil war. There are passages in this 
second inaugural address that are matchless 
in English literature. He was no longer the 
father plaintively pleading with wayward chil- 
dren who insisted upon fighting ; he was rather 



ABBAHAM LINCOLN 2lY 

the elder brother lamenting the loss and woe 
which their headstrong acts had brought upon 
the people. He poured out the tenderness and 
devotion of his great soul in these closing words : 
" Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass 
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until 
all the wealth piled up by the bondsman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn by 
the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, 
so still it must be said, that ' the judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 
With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right as God gives us to 
see the right, let us strive to finish the work 
we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to 
care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
and for his widow and his orphans, to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and last- 
ing peace among ourselves and with all na- 
tions." Well may it be said, " No American 
President had ever spoken words like these 
to the American people. America never had 
a President who found such words in the depths 
of his heart." 

Now came the closing scenes of the war. 
Lee's army surrendered to Grant, and peace 
was assured. The people went wild with joy; 
bonfires and illuminations lighted up the North- 
ern sky, and the city of Washington was a blaze 
of light, as cannon boomed their warlike notes 



218 



STATESMEN 



to proclaim thai the war was over. In the midst 
of this jubilation, our people were stunned by the 
announcement that the good President had fallen 
in the national capital, stricken by the hand of an 
assassin. No words can picture the grief of the 
nation as these appalling tidings went forth. 
As by magic the scene was changed from one 
of festivity and jov to one of mourning and 




House where Lincoln Died in Washington — 516 Tenth Street, N. W. 



lamentation. But the man and the hour had 
come and gone. The American Union was 
saved, slavery was destroved, and peace at 
last brooded over a long-distracted and bleed- 
ing country. His work done, Lincoln's life- 
less form was carried to his home in Spring- 
field, III., where it was laid in the earth with 
many tears. The attorney for the people, as 
he always called himself, had prosecuted the 
cause entrusted to his hands. Trained as he 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 219 

had been in the hard school of poverty and 
adversity, he had learned lessons of self-reliance 
and self-denial ; he had learned the real value of 
human freedom, and had slowly absorbed into 
every fibre of his being the principles that lie 
at the foundation of human liberty and of self- 
government. His mission was ended. 

They who complain, as certain analysts have 
complained, that Lincoln's character, so strangely 
and weirdly mixed, is a mystery, may rest in the 
belief that all great geniuses are mysterious. 
Shakespeare is a mystery so profound that men 
have been put to the rash expedient of insisting 
that there was no real personality in that name. 
The subtle processes of mind by which a great 
genius like Lincoln arrives at conclusions, divines 
men's motives and foresees events from afar, 
frames heaven-born truths in matchless words, or 
utters sayings of the profoundest wisdom, can 
never be understood by other men. It is useless 
to waste words in attempting any divination of 
the secret. It is even possible that the pos- 
sessor of these rare gifts cannot himself under- 
stand them. Lincoln was to the last degree a 
reticent man. Although he had a certain free- 
and-easy, broad manner of meeting friendly ap- 
proaches, there was in his nature a line beyond 
which not even his closest intimates could pass. 
None could be made uncomfortable by the feel- 
ing that he was repelled or excluded from that 
intimacy ; but, with all his geniality and free- 
dom of manner, he was never confiding of his 
innermost thoughts and emotions. Perhaps 



220 STATESMEN 

this reserve deepened the mystery of his being. 
It certainly did veil the inner recesses of his 
character. 

He was more ambitious than most of the men 
of his time gave him credit for. I am convinced 
that he dreamed of the Presidency long before 
destiny and the people's choice had turned his 
face in the direction of the White House. He 
was conscious of power within himself very 
early in his political career. But he was wise 
and shrewd — shrewd almost to the point of cun- 
ning. Nobody better than he knew how to veil 
his purposes while he yet held these in abeyance. 
If he " fooled " his advisers and petitioners while 
he put off and again put off his action, it was 
that he might be absolutely sure of the step before 
he took it. Once taken, there never was a back- 
ward movement. Never for a moment relax- 
ing his intention to do, he waited with a patience 
that was immovable the ripeness of the time and 
the readiness of the people to go with him to the 
end of the thing to be done. Although he ap- 
peared to be led, he constantly and artfully and 
subtly led. 

To the last his manners were simple, unaf- 
fected, and free from even the appearance of 
self-conscious greatness. When touched in his 
manly dignity, he showed his resentment; and 
at times, when he had been too long subjected to 
the worry and strain of the duties of his place, 
he was humanly irritable and even captious. 
Once, when a visitor had exhausted his patience 
with his profanity, he rose 'and, with awful dig- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



221 



nity, motioned the offender through the opened 
door. And at another time, when one of his 
dearest friends had been maligned in a memorial 
laid before him, he asked if the paper were his to 
treat as he pleased, and answered affirmatively, 
he calmly laid the document on the burning 
coals in the grate and bade the delegates good- 
morning. 

The folk-lore, the multitudinous stories ab- 



wrr 




Death-mask of Lincoln. 



sorbed in the years of his roving frontier life, 
were of inestimable value to Lincoln ; and these 
are popularly associated in any view of his life 
and character. But he seldom told a story for 
the mere sake of telling it. Invariably, the anec- 
dote, tiie incident, the humorsome jest had pith 
and point. Taken from the setting that Lincoln 
gave it, it was merelv funny ; as he gave it, it 
was the barbed arrow that sent the argument or 
sa3dng home. This has been excellently de- 



222 STATESMEN 

scribed by Emerson, who, in his funeral address 
at Concord, said : " He is the author of a multi- 
tude ot good sayings, so disguised as pleasant- 
ries that it is certain that thev had no reputation 
at hrst but as jests; and only later, by the very 
acceptance and adoption they find in the mouths 
of millions, turn out to be the wisdom of the 
hour. I am sure if this man had ruled in a 
period of less lacilitv of printing, he would have 
become mythological in a very few years, like 
^Esop or Pilpay, or one of the Seven Wise Mas- 
ters, by his fables and proverbs." 

Whatever were his limitations, and these were 
apparent to those who knew him, Lincoln was 
fully equal to the time in which he lived and to 
the vast burden that he lifted and carried with 
giant ease and strength. The tragicalness, the 
needlessness, so to speak, of his taking-off will 
always remain to mortal eyes inexplicable. Why 
he should not liave been permitted to li\e and 
enjoy the well-earned fruits of four 3'ears of 
strenuous labor, why he should have been al- 
lowed only to look over into the Promised Land 
of Peace from the Pisgah sinnmit of those last sad 
days, we ma\' not know. Somewhere in God's 
eternal plan that noble, self-denying soul lives 
and rejoices in its strength. And even we, dis- 
consolatelv lamenting his unrewarded years of 
toil, may find some consolatitMi in the thought 
that in the vast movements of Inmianity in which 
nations and indixiduals are insignificant factors, 
the life of Lincoln was long enc^ugh to serve its 
majestic mission. 




The Statue of Sumner, by Thomas Ball, in the Public Garden, Boston. 



VIII. 
CHARLES SUMNER. 

In October, 1850, Charles Sumner delivered a 
wonderful speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston. This 
was at the important turning-point in the history 
of American politics when old parties were dis- 
solving, and from their elements were rising the 
two great parties (for there were really only 
two) that were to stand arrayed against each 
other until the civil war should destroy slavery 
and open another epoch in the history of civil- 
ization. It was my good fortune to sit within a 
few feet of the rostrum, at a reporters' table, 
looking up at the young Apollo, who towered 
like a demigod at an immense height over us. I 
remember one reporter, who, fascinated by the 
sight, looked up and breathlessly said : " Great 
God ! that man seems twenty feet high ! " 

His personal appearance was not only one of 
extreme elegance — for he was always dressed 
with scrupulous care— but of magnificent and 
manly proportions. He was six feet and two 
inches high, well formed, with a magnificent head 
of hair, dark, lustrous eyes, perfect teeth, and 
features that might be called Romanesque. His 
gestures were large and sweeping, his voice res- 
onant and musical, but without any such great 



224 STA TESMEN 

compass as that of Wendell Phillips or lleni\y 
Clay, both ot whom he somewhat resembled in 
his general style of oratory. One of his biog- 
raphers has given this account of his appearance 
at the age of twenty-two : " He was tall and 
gaunt, weighing only one hundred and twenty 
pounds ; his hair was dark brown, his eyes hazel 
and inHamed by excessive use ; his face sharp- 
featured ; his teeth gleaming with whiteness ; his 
complexion dark and not clear ; his visage and 
person not attractive to the eye, and far unlike 
his presence in later life, when, with full projxjr- 
tions and classic features, he arrested attention 
in the Senate and on the street. . . . His 
voice was strong, clear, and sonorous ; his coun- 
tenance was lighted up with expression, and his 
genial smile won friends upon an introduction. 
His spirits w^ere buoyant in company, and his 
laugh was loud and hearty." I have said that he 
was careful in his attire. This habit stuck to him 
through life, and even when he was an under- 
graduate of Harvard he refused to conform to 
the rules of dress prescribed by the faculty, and 
persisted in wearing a buff-colored waistcoat, for 
which he received an " admonition for illegal 
dress." As to his height, an amusing incident 
is related by B. P. Poore, who says : " On Lin- 
coln's arrival in Washington, shortly before his 
inauguration, in 1861, he met Sumner for the first 
time. Lincoln said : ' Sumner declined to stand 
up with me back to back to see which was the 
taller man, and made a fine speech about this 
being the time for uniting our fronts against the 



CHARLES SUMNER 225 

enemy and not our backs; but I guess he was 
afraid to measure them. He is a good piece of a 
man. I had never had much to do with bishops 
where I lived, but do you know Sumner is my 
idea of a bishop.' " As a matter of fact, it may be 
said here that Sumner and Lincoln were very 
nearly the same height ; Lincoln was six feet 
four inches. 

The first impression that most people gained 
of Sumner, even in his earlier years in Boston, 
long before he had acquired great fame as an 
orator and a statesman, was not altogether favor- 
able. He impressed one with his egotism and 
profound self-admiration. He always delighted 
to talk of the celebrated people he met, and of 
the attentions lavished upon him, and to air his 
erudition and his learning, of which he certainly 
possessed a great store. His accomplished biog- 
rapher and literary executor, Edward L. Pierce, 
has this to say of him : " It pleased him to know 
the effect of his orations, and to let others know 
it also. This habit, which developed when he 
took the platform in Boston, remained with him 
to the end. There was always in it, as well in 
middle life as in youth, something spontaneous, 
artless, childlike, the natural expression of a frank 
nature, with no purpose to exalt himself or de- 
preciate others. Tact would have imposed 
greater reserve, for the habit repelled many, par- 
ticularly those who had the ambition without 
the power to do what he could do. People who 
are clever, without breadth or strength, are dis- 
posed to harp upon such a limitation, overlook- 
15 



226 STATESMEN 

ing altogether the talents and service which may 
accompany it. . . , This quality or habit of 
Sumner, whatever he had of it, was harmless. 
It led him to no distorted view of men and things ; 
to no underestimate of other men's powers ; to 
no disparagement of their work, and no disregard 
of their opinions and counsels. Jealousy and 
envy were no part of his nature. He praised 
generously, even lavishly, not only those younger 
than himself or inferior in position, but those also 
who were his peers in office or his rivals for 
fame." Whittier doubtless had this defect in 
mind when, after his death, he wrote of Sumner 
thus : 

" Safely his dearest friends may own 
The slight defects he never hid, 
The surface blemish in the stone 
Of the tall, stately pyramid. 

" What if he felt the natural pride 
Of power in noble use too true, 
With thin humilities to hide 

The work he did, the lore he knew ? " 

The charge that he was a tuft-hunter or seeker 
after titled folk was often made unjustly against 
him, but it so happens that in this country of ours 
a titled foreigner is likely to be a person of dis- 
tinction whose acquaintance would be desirable 
to any person. Being at the White House one 
day during Lincoln's administration, the Presi- 
dent asked me if, on arriving at the Capitol, 
whither I was going, I would say to Senator 
Sumner that he (the President) would be glad if 



CHARLES SUMNER 227 

the Senator would call to see him later in the 
da}', if entirely convenient. I sought out Mr. 
Sumner and delivered the message, whereupon, 
in his most magnificent manner, he said : " Let 
me see. I have an engagement to take luncheon 
with the Marquis de Chambrun, and later to 
dine with the British Minister. Yes, yes, I think 
I will go ; I think I will go. Pray tell the Presi- 
dent so." There was no need for Senator Sum- 
ner to tell an unimportant person like myself 
what his engagements with great people were ; 
and he knew very well that I should not see the 
President again that day. 

Before Sumner was elected to the Senate he 
passed several years abroad. He was then at 
an impressionable age — twentv-seven years — 
and his long residence abroad (some two years 
and three or four months) gave him a certain 
air of foreign distinction which to sensitive 
critics was exceedingly offensive. While abroad 
he met many desirable acquaintances, and he 
said in a letter to a friend at home : " I now 
hardly call to mind a person in England that 
I cared to see whom I have not met under 
circumstances the most agreeable and flatter- 
ing to m3'self." His rare intelligence on topics 
interesting to Englishmen, their politics, his- 
tor}', law, literature, authorship, and public 
men commended him to the best people in 
England. It is possible that his brilliant social 
successes abroad and his thoroughly enjoy- 
able residence there made him somewhat disaf- 
fected toward the comparatively raw culture of 



22S 



STATESMEN 



his own land. On his retnrn from abroad he 
went into the practice of law, the details of 
which were to him exceedingly irksome, and he 
could not refrain from confessing to his intimate 
friends that he had little heart for the drudgery 




The Bust of Sumner in the Museum of Art, Boston, by his friend, Thomas 
Crawford. 

of a law ofifice. " Sometimes," says Mr. Pierce, " at 
this period he recurred unwisely to his f(M-eign 
life or letters in conversation with clients or 
lawyers who knew or cared little about such 
things, a habit likely to repel those who were 
intent only on the business in hand, and to make 
them feel that his mind was not enough on what 



CHARLES SUMNER 229 

most concerned them. Indeed, prudence dic- 
tated a greater reserve in this regard with all 
except intimate friends than he maintained." W. 
W. Story, then a student in the office of George 
S. Hillard and Charles Sumner, says : "After the 
flush of those exciting days abroad, his office 
and daily occupation seemed dull and gray, and 
I cannot but think that that changed the whole 
after course of his life and thought. He did in- 
deed set himself with determination to his work, 
but it had lost the charm it formerly had and the 
dreams of those delightful days, and the echoes 
of those far-away voices haunted his memory. 
America seemed flat to him after Europe. This, 
however, slowly passed away, though never to 
his dying day completely." People often re- 
ferred to Sumner's " English manner." 

An amusing example of his sensitiveness to 
the American rawness above referred to appears 
in a letter written by Sumner during the Whig 
campaign of 1840 to a friend in London. The 
letter was written on one of the campaign note- 
papers of the time, and bore as its heading 
wood-cuts of General William Henry Harri- 
son and a log cabin and cider-barrels. He re- 
ferred in his letter to " this poor sheet and its 
pictures," and said : " Our politics are shabby 
enough. The Whigs, constituting the opposi- 
tion, have nominated for the Presidency the 
person whose head adorns a corner of this sheet. 
He has in his favor his good conduct during the 
War of 1812 and an alleged victory at Tippe- 
canoe ; and the vulgar appeal is made, grounded 



230 STATESMEN 

on military success. This has made him a more 
acceptable candidate than Clay or Webster, who 
have been, serving the state well for years. 
Harrison lives in the State of Ohio, cultivating 
his farm with his own hands, and as what is 
called ' help ' in that part of the country is not 
eas}' to be procured, his wife and daughter cook 
and serve the dinner for seven or eight people 
who daily challenge his hospitalitv. An admin- 
istration paper alluded to him as living in a log 
cabin and drinking hard cider. The Whigs at 
once adopted these words and placed them on 
their favors. They proclaim Harrison the candi- 
date of the log-cabin and hard-cider class, and 
this vulgar appeal is made by the party profess- 
ing a monopolv of the intelligence and educa- 
tion in the country!" This critical note on 
American political vulgarity might have been 
by an English visitor to a friend at home. 

It is due to Sumner to say that when Harrison 
died, but one short month after his inauguration, 
he wrote to Lord Morpeth : " I think you will 
be struck bv the short and simple annimciation 
of the death of President Harrison by his Cabinet. 
This was written by Mr. Webster, who is the 
soul of our government. Harrison died after 
holding power thirty days, ere the shoes were 
old in Avhich he had taken the oath of his high 
office. He was loved much, and the country ex- 
pected much from him." 

But more delightfully familiar foreign corre- 
spondence was never sent from Europe by any 
American than Siunncr's letters to his friends at 



CHARLES SUMNER 231 

home. His powers of observation were acute, 
and he had rare and unusual facilities for accu- 
mulating entertaining anecdotes about people 
now well known in history. For example, he said 
the Duke of Wellington said of Lord Brougham, 
" Damned odd fellow — half mad ; " while Brough- 
am, who was vexed with the Duke for interfer- 
ing in British politics, said, " Westminster Abbey 
is yawning for him." Of Carlyle he wrote : " 1 
heard Carlyle lecture the other day. He seemed 
like an inspired boy. Truth and thoughts that 
made one move on the benches came from his 
apparently unconscious mind couched in the 
most grotesque style and condensed to a degree 
of intensity, if I may so write. He is the Zerah 
Colburn of thought." He met Sir Walter Scott, 
who did not impress him very pleasantly, and 
who, as he learned from one of his intimate 
friends, never saw " fair Melrose aright," be- 
cause he never did " visit it by the pale moon- 
light." The truth was, according to Sir David 
Brewster, that Scott would not go there by 
night " for fear of bogles.'' 

Sumner's first business on arriving in Europe 
was to acquaint himself with the French lan- 
guage, and his acquisitive powers were demon- 
strated by the ease with which he mastered " the 
lingo." He deferred visits to all places of in- 
terest and held himself aloof from society until 
he had overcome the difficulty of speech which 
he so much deplored. When he arrived in Paris 
he could hardly understand a single sentence 
when spoken to liim. In less than a month he 



232 STATESMEN 

could follow a lecturer, and in six weeks he could 
take his part in conversation, and at the end of 
three months he served' as an interpreter before 
a local magistrate on the examination of a fellow- 
countryman. Sumner's mind was active to rest- 
lessness, and in his earlier years he threw him- 
self into study with ardor so great as to impair 
his health and get for him the reputation of being 
monkish in his habits. He read with a devour- 
ing eagerness, but with great discrimination and 
care. He early mastered the classics, and it is 
possible that the pedantry of which he was in 
later years accused, was due to the fact that he 
absorbed the works of Latin authors with a cer- 
tain avidity and enthusiasm most unusual. His 
father was sheriff of Suffolk County, a stern man, 
and ruling his household with an iron hand. 
Although the Sumners were of good family and 
in comfortable circumstances, it is noticeable 
that when Sumner's father recommended him 
to a preparatory school where he should be 
equipped to enter Harvard College, he laid stress 
upon the necessity that the lad should early earn 
his own living. After he had been graduated 
from Harvard he unsuccessfully sought for a 
subordinate post in the Boston Latin School. 
Then he taught for three weeks at Brookline, but 
soon gave up school-teaching, for which he had 
neither taste nor inclination. At the age of nine- 
teen he composed an essa)- on Commerce, the 
subject of a prize competed for by minors, which 
had been offered by a Boston society, of which 
Daniel Webster was president. Sumner won 



CHARLES SUMNER 233 

the prize, and Webster, requesting him to come 
forward, took him by the hand, called him his 
"young friend," and in kindly words congratu- 
lated him on his possible future. The great and 
godlike Daniel little thought that he was greet- 
inof one who should succeed him in the Senate 
and win enduring fame. 

When Sumner was twenty-three years old he 
had his first sight of the capital of the republic, 
where his future renown was to be won. His 
letters to his friends and family from Washing- 
ton are entertaining, and they bespeak the close 
observer. This was in 1834, when Webster, 
Clay, Calhoun, and Benton were in the Senate. 
Sumner from the gallery looked on, and writing 
to his father, said : " Mr. Calhoun has spoken to- 
day on Mr. Webster's Bank bill. He is no ora- 
tor ; very rugged in his language and studied in 
style, marching directly to the main points of his 
subject without stopping for parley or introduc- 
tion. His speech made a ver}- strong impression 
upon a very numerous audience." Later on, 
when the Oregon question was still under dis- 
cussion, and while Sumner was yet a geat way 
off from the Senate, he wrote to Lord Morpeth 
thus : " Calhoun has won what Adams has lost, 
and I have been not a little pained to be obliged 
to withdraw my sympathies from the revered 
champion of freedom and give them to the un- 
hesitating advocate of slavery. Calhoun's course 
has been wnse and able." 

Returning to Boston from Washington after 
his little outing, Sumner tried to take up again 



234 STATESMEN 

the practice of law, which he did in a certain 
perfunctor)' and not enthusiastic manner. It is 
difficult to think of Sumner as an attorney, 
arguing about water rights, conveyances, and 
similar matters, but he was willing to accept 
the place of a reporter of judicial decisions and 
to edit law books, which not onl}- shows that he 
had not enough clients to take up his time, but 
that he found jurisprudence a more congenial 
study than books of practice. Regarding Sum- 
ner's position in life and literature at this period, 
one can see that he was, for a little while at least, 
out of place. He may well have been puzzled 
to know where lay his true vocation. He was a 
scholar, an art critic, a student of literature and 
of history, but to him even politics, in which he 
afterward found some occupation, were to the 
last degree distasteful. Pierce says of him : " He 
was aspiring, his nature sensitive and refined ; 
his imagination had fed upon historic ideals and 
he had shared the intimacy of the best exem- 
plars among living men. . . . He remem- 
bered the promises of youth, and we may believe 
felt keenl}- that as yet the performance of mature 
life had fallen far below them, and he did not see 
opening before him any path of great usefulness 
and honor." 

There are those who have believed that Sum- 
ner's choice of a career, which involved that 
bitter crusade against slavery which he subse- 
quently waged, was determined rather deliber- 
ately than spontaneously. Many people have 
thought, and perhaps not unjustly, that Sumner 



CHARLES SUMNER 235 

was an anti-slavery man from sentiment and not 
from principle. His first high anti-slavery note 
is in a letter written January 9, 1836, to Dr. 
Lieber, in Columbia, S. C, in which he says : 
" You are in the midst of slavery, seated among 
its whirling eddies, blown around as they are by 
the blasts of Governor McDuffie fiercer than 
any from the old wind-bags of ^Eolus. What 
think you of it? Should it longer exist ? Is not 
emancipation practicable ? We are becoming 
abolitionists at the North fast. The riots, the 
attempts to abridge the freedom of discussion. 
Governor McDuffie's message, and the conduct 
of the South generally have caused many to 
think favorably of immediate emancipation who 
never before inclined to it." 

Questions of international law growing out of 
slavery in the United States supplied topics for 
discussion in which Sumner engaged with great 
heartiness. The right of search exercised by 
the British Government in the suppression of 
slavery, the validity of a claim to a slave on 
the high seas or in the ports of foreign pow- 
ers, and other matters of this sort attracted his 
attention and engaged his pen. He was not 
an abolitionist like William Lloyd Garrison and 
Wendell Phillips, but believed from the first in 
the ultimate triumph of freedom under the Con- 
stitution and by the power of the Union, where- 
as the abolitionists stigmatized the Constitution 
of the United States as "a covenant with death 
and an agreement with hell." Other concerns 
than those immediately related to the anti-slav- 



236 STATESMEN 

ery movement enlisted his great and growing 
powers. The education of the blind and the 
idiotic, and care for prison discipline, were 
among the interests that received his active co- 
operation. 

He reached a turning-point in his career when 
he delivered his Fourth of July oration in Bos- 
ton, in 1845, choosing for his topic "The True 
Grandeur of Nations." It was an old-fashioned 
celebration of Independence Day, the festivities 
and exercises being under the charge of the city 
government. Sumner's address, therefore, had a 
certain official character which gave it impor- 
tance. The oration was delivered in Faneuil Hall, 
and was a remarkable occasion. The audience 
was large, expectation was high, and everybody 
appeared to apprehend that something was about 
to happen. Peleg W. Chandler writes of this 
picture presented in Faneuil Hall : " Sumner's 
presence as he came forward drew undivided at- 
tention. The prominent citizens in the audience 
had met him in society or in the routine of his 
profession, and others had noted him on the 
street, but probably the greater number of his 
hearers now saw him for the first time. He was 
then the impersonation of manly beauty and 
power, of commanding stature, his figure no 
longer slender, as in student days, but well de- 
veloped ; his features finely cut, his dark hair 
hanofinof in masses over his well-formed brow, 
his face lighting with the smile which always 
won him friends at first sight. He wore a dress- 
coat with gilt buttons, a fancy of lawyers at that 





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If / 1 



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liiiiiiiiiiiiiEiiiiiiiiBiiii^iiiiii^iiiiiif^ 



Charles Sumner. 



23S STATESMEN 

period, and white waistcoat and trousers. His 
gestures were unstudied and followed no rules ; 
the most frequent one was the swinging of the 
arm above the head. His voice was clear and 
strong, resounding through the hall, but at times 
falling in cadences hollow and pathetic. Seldom 
has there been seen on the platform a more at-' 
tractive presence than his as now, at the age of 
thirty-four, he stood for the first time before the 
people assembled to hear him." 

On this occasion the officers, sailors, and ma- 
rines from a United States man-of-war lying in 
the harbor, and portions of the State militia in all 
their glory, were present. Sumner's speech was 
a plea for peace, and these questions were ut- 
tered in the course of his oration : " What is the 
use of the standing army ? What is the use of 
the navy ? What is the use of the fortifications ? 
What is the use of a militia of the United States ? " 
He also employed such phrases as " Farcical 
discipline ; " " Shouldering arms and carrying 
arms ; " " Men closely dressed in padded and 
well-buttoned coats of blue, besmeared with gold, 
surmounted by a huge mountain cap of shaggy 
bearskin." These expressions, naturally enough, 
angered the authorities and set the tongues of 
Boston gossips, male and female, wildly wagging. 
It was an epoch in Sumner's career. The bold- 
ness of his utterances, the caustic satire in which 
he assailed many cherished institutions excited 
the surprise and sometimes the wrath of conserv- 
ative, old-fogy Boston. The whole State took 
up the discussion, and it may safely be said that 



CHARLES SUMNER 239 

the Fourth of July oration of the young orator 
gave him then more prominence than any pre- 
vious act of his life. 

The Whig party was about dropping into 
pieces, and Sumner now became one of the lead- 
ers of the faction known as " The Young Whigs." 
He was a member of a State committee appoint- 
ed in the fall of 1845 ^i^d charged with the duty 
of organizing public opinion against the admis- 
sion of Texas, then one of the burning topics of 
the time. The question of annexation, and of 
the Mexican War, which immediately followed, 
rent the North into factions. Robert C. Win- 
throp, a leading Massachusetts Whig, for some 
time Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
lent his voice and vote to the prosecution of the 
war. The Whigs were then contending that 
they, rather than the Democrats, were disposed 
to hinder the further extension of slavery. Win- 
throp's action roused the Young Whigs and 
Sumner wrote a series of articles, which were 
published in the Boston newspapers, reprobating 
Winthrop's vote and criticising him in the bitter- 
est terms. This attack upon Winthrop was furi- 
ously resented by Boston " society," in which 
Mr. Winthrop, as a descendant of one of the 
early Governors, was a conspicuous figure and 
Avas regarded as one of the bluest of the blue- 
blooded. Society held up its hands in horror at 
the bare suggestion that a young man like Sum- 
ner should dare to criticise the course of conduct 
of the admirable and admired Winthrop. Doors 
of many great houses in the modern Athens were 



240 STA TESMEN 

from thenceforth closed against Sumner, and 
people of Boston's " highest society " said of 
him : " He is outside of the pale." Sumner 
doubtless felt keenly this social exclusion, for he 
had a relish for the tastes, luxury, and refined 
talk which at that time distinguished the homes 
in which he had once been welcome, but from 
which he was now shut out. 

The Whigs died hard. The " Silver Grays," 
as the Conservativ^es were called, worshipped 
Webster, and while the disturbances of social 
and political lines were going on, the godlike 
Daniel, speaking in Faneuil Hall, said : " Others 
rely on their foundations and their hopes for the 
welfare of the country, but for my part, in the 
dark and troubled night that is upon us, I see no 
star above the horizon promising light to guide 
us but the intelligent, patriotic, united Whig 
party of the United States." Slowly arose from 
the ruins of the dismembered Whig party the 
Free Soil organization of 1848. Among these in 
Boston were Richard H. Dana, Jr., Charles Sum- 
ner, Charles Francis Adams, Henry Wilson, An- 
son Burlingame, E. R. Hoar, John A. Andrew, 
and others whose names subsequentlv became 
famous in the history of the country. It is inter- 
esting to note that among the Whigs who spoke 
in Massachusetts during that time was Abraham 
Lincoln, then the only Whig member of Congress 
from Illinois, who had been brought by his party 
into the State and who spoke at Worcester on 
the evening before the Whig State Convention, 
when his arguments were chiefly directed against 



CHARLES SUMNER 241 

the Free Soilers, to whom he objected as being 
a party of one idea, which was good enough in 
itself, but not broad enough to build a party on. 
Webster took the same view, when he said about 
this time : " No drum-head in the longest day's 
march was ever more incessantly beaten and 
smitten than the public sentiment in the North 
has been every month and day and hour by the 
din and roll and rub-a-dub of abolition writers 
and abolition lecturers." 

Fire was added to the flames of the anti-slavery 
excitement by the arrest, in Boston, in April, 
185 1, of Thomas Sims, a negro, claimed as a 
fugitive slave from Georgia. The case was 
taken before a United States commissioner sit- 
ting in the Boston Court-House. The building 
was surrounded with chains to keep off the mob, 
and amidst great excitement the negro Avas 
awarded to his claimant and, surrounded by 
three hundred armed policemen, was taken to 
the water-front and put on board a brig bound for 
Savannah. This incident created the wildest ex- 
citement not only throughout New England, but 
through the North. 

Sumner's speech in Faneuil Hall, to which 
reference was made in the opening paragraph of 
this chapter, was sometimes called his " Marc 
Antony speech." It was a bold and vigorous 
arraignment of the Fugitive Slave law, a denial 
of its binding force under the Constitution, and 
was admirably designed to create a public senti- 
ment which would render enforcement of the 
law impossible. The speech was exceedingly 

IG 



242 STATESMEN 

bitter in its denunciation of the men engaged in 
the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law and of 
those who were in any way instrumental in its 
enactment. He pleaded for a public opinion 
that should keep perpetual guard over the liber- 
ties of all within the boundaries of Massachusetts. 
" Nay, more," he said ; " like the flaming sword 
of the cherubim at the gates of Paradise, turning 
on every side, it shall prevent any slave-hunter 
from ever setting foot in this commonwealth. 
Elsewhere he may pursue his human prey, em- 
ploy his congenial bloodhounds, and exult in his 
successful game, but into Massachusetts he must 
not come." Referring to the often-repeated 
statement that the slavery question was settled, 
he said : " Yes, settled, settled, that is the word. 
Nothing, sir, can be settled zuhich is not right ; 
nothing can be settled which is against free- 
dom ; nothing can be settled which is against 
divine law. God, nature, and all the holy senti- 
ments of the heart repudiate any such false, seem- 
ing settlement." 

An election for United States Senator from 
the State of Massachusetts was now impending, 
and this speech placed Sumner foremost among 
the Free Soilers as a candidate. The Legislature 
met early in January, 185 1, with Henry Wilson, 
Free Soiler, President of the Senate, and Nathan- 
iel P. Banks, Jr., Democrat, Speaker of the 
House. The Free Soilers and the Democrats 
formed a coalition, under the terms of which the 
Democrats were to secure the greater part of the 
State offices, the Governorship being about to be 




The Boston Home of Mr. Sumner, at 20 Hancock Street. 



244 STATESMEN 

filled by the Legislature, and the Free Soilers to 
be awarded the United States Senator. This 
agreement naturally roused great wrath among 
the Whigs, who saw that Webster's place in the 
United States Senate was to pass out of their 
control. There was some delay, however, in 
carrying out the provisions of the covenant, 
and it was not until after a contest which lasted 
more than two months that Sumner was finalh^ 
elected. 

Robert Rantoul, Jr., was the candidate of some 
of the Democrats who held themselves aloof 
from the coalition. Robert C. Winthrop, who 
had been appointed by the Governor to fill the 
temporary vacancy caused by Webster's resign- 
ing his seat in the Senate to take a place in the 
Cabinet of President Fillmore, was the choice 
of the Whigs. During the long balloting for 
Senator, there was one day found among the 
ballots in the box one bearing this eccentric in- 
scription : 

" Not a truck-and-dicker coon, 
Not a man in the moon ; 
Get Sumner if you can, 
But Rantoul is my man." 

If this ballot could have been counted for 
either Rantoul or Sumner — and both parties 
claimed it — the election would have been con- 
cluded then and there. Its ambiguity made an- 
other ballot necessary after a long debate over 
the possible intention of the voter. 

Sumner was sworn in as United States Sena- 



CHARLES SUMNER 245 

tor, December i, 185 1. His first speech was 
made on the tenth day of that session on a reso- 
lution of welcome to Louis Kossuth, the Hun- 
garian patriot, who had come to this country 
with a national invitation and was accorded a 
national reception. Sumner took conservative 
ground against any action which would seem to 
be a recognition of the belligerent rights of 
Hungary. He spoke with discretion, and his 
position was very generally applauded. His 
first anti-slavery speech was delivered eight 
months later, and was a vigorous blast against 
the Fugitive Slave law, the immediate repeal of 
which he demanded. Many efforts had been 
made to prevent him from speaking, but he 
finally found an opportunity where his address 
could be made under due provision of parliamen- 
tary law ; whereupon he delivered a speech of 
tremendous power which created consternation 
among the pro-slavery Senators in the Senate 
and made a profound impression throughout the 
country. He did not usually join in general de- 
bate in the Senate, apparently confining himself 
for a long time to watching the drift of events, 
and seldom speaking except on the great sub- 
ject nearest his heart. Seward, writing to him 
at this time, said that he hoped that Sumner 
would seize some practical question and show 
that he was competent to deal with the general 
affairs of the government. And Chase, then 
Governor of Ohio, wrote, advising him " to take 
off his coat and go into the every-day fight." 
Sumner's hesitation in this regard, however, did 



246 STATESMEN 

not })ass away until his own party was fully es- 
tablished in power in the United States Con- 
gress in 1861, He was S3'stematically excluded 
from the Standing Committee of the Senate, and 
was generally regarded as a Catiline, whose 
presence in the Senate chamber was a menace to 
the perpetuity of the Union. 

His speeches on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 
the early part of 1854, were even more vigorous, 
powerfid, and caustic than those which he de- 
livered against the Fugitive Slave law. The 
proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise 
and leave the friends of freedom and the sup- 
porters of slavery to fight it out between them- 
selves in the new Territories aroused his wrath, 
and he poured out his righteous indignation in a 
torrent of logic, invective, and historic illustration 
that amazed and dismayed the pro-slavery men. 
At last they were faced by an adversary even 
more bold and aggressive than themselves. 
These speeches caused a prodigious excitement 
everyw^here, and some of the more feather- 
headed Southern politicians in Washington act- 
ually proposed Sumner's expulsion from the 
Senate ; but this scheme, if it was ever seriously 
entertained, lacked the support of votes to carry 
it through and was abandoned. In the course 
of one of these speeches he said : "In passing- 
such a bill as is now threatened you scatter 
from this dark, midnight hour no seeds of har- 
mony and good-will, but broadcast through the 
land dragons' teeth, which happily may not 
spring up in direful crops of armed men, yet, I 



CHARLES SUMNER 247 

am assured, sir, will fructify in civil strife and 
feud." By a curious coincidence, almost while 
this was being- delivered in the Senate, Boston 
was greatly excited by the arrest and rendition 
of another fugitive slave, one Anthony Burns, 
claimed by a Virginian planter, and remanded un- 
der the orders of the United States commissioner 
to the custody of the United States marshal. 
During the excitement a deputy marshal was ac- 
cidentally killed by a pistol-shot, and there were 
those who were ready to claim that Sumner's 
language in the Senate had led to the act which 
resulted in bloodshed. As a matter of fact, the 
speech could not have reached Boston until sev- 
eral hours after the fugitive slave had been sent 
back to slavery. 

The rage of the Southerners was great, and 
was still further inflamed by later speeches on 
the same subject during the debate over the 
proposition to throw Kansas and Nebraska open 
to a contest between slavery and freedom. Out 
of this great excitement came the assault of 
Preston S. Brooks upon Senator Sumner. In 
one of his speeches Sumner had referred to Sen- 
ator Butler, of South Carolina, with his usual 
causticity and sarcasm ; but during the address 
he was not called to order for any part of it, 
either by the President or by any Senator, al- 
though he was closely watched to see if any per- 
sonality could justify a point of order to be raised 
against him. He sustained himself with great 
force and emphasis, and with a vigor and rich- 
ness of diction and felicity of expression that ex- 




The Rendition of Anthony Burns. 



CHARLES SUMNER 249 

torted the praise of many who could not sym- 
pathize with his views. Preston S. Brooks was a 
representative from South Carolina, a son of 
Senator Butler's cousin — a relationship hardly 
near enough perhaps to call for his volunteer- 
ing to defend the South Carolina Senator who, 
among others, had been attacked. A day or two 
passed after the delivery of the speech in which 
Butler was so vigorously criticised by Sumner, 
when Brooks, watching his opportunity, stole in- 
to the Senate chamber where Sumner was busily 
writing at his desk, the Senate not being then in 
session, and, raising a heavy cane, beat the Sen- 
ator with great force and rapidity over the head. 
Sumner fell to the floor senseless and bleeding, 
unable to extricate himself from the desk where 
he was sitting, closely engaged. 

This assault, from the effects of which Sumner 
never fully recovered, kindled the North with 
flames of indignation and caused an intense ex- 
citement throughout the country, South and 
North. Brooks was hailed as a champion of the 
South, but was denounced by many fair-minded 
slave-holders, Benton, among others, saying : 
" This is not an assault, sir, it is a conspiracy ; 
yes, sir, a conspiracy. These men hunt in coup- 
les ; it is a conspiracy, and the North should 
know it." A resolution to expel Preston S. 
Brooks from the House failed of the necessary 
two-thirds vote, whereupon he resigned his seat, 
went home, and was re-elected. A few months 
later he died, and a cenotaph was erected to 
his memory in the Congressional cemeter}- at 



250 STATESMEN 

Washington. Sumner remained on his sick-bed 
for many weary weeks, and after a magnificent 
reception in the city of Boston, he went to Eu- 
rope for health and remained there eight months. 
He returned for a short yisit and again went 
abroad, remaining this time a year and a half. 

The election of Lincoln and the flight of the 
Southern Senators and Representatiyes from 
Washington left the party of Sumner in full 
possession of both branches of Congress, Sum- 
ner was one of the more far-sighted statesmen 
who saw that war was not only imminent, but 
likely to be prolonged. He early urged upon 
the President the policy of emancipating the 
slayes, and he embraced eyery occasion to press 
this upon the President and all others in author- 
ity. During the long and tedious struggle that 
succeeded, he was actiyely engaged in other mat- 
ters than those which related directly to the 
prosecution of the war. In the case of the Trent, 
from which the Confederate enyoys Mason and 
Slidell had been taken by Captain Wilkes, of the 
United States man-of-war San Jacinto, Sumner 
argued that international law required the sur- 
render of the captiyes ; but as the question did 
not directly require the interyention of the Sen- 
ate, he contented himself with such priyate 
conyersation as would be influential in prepar- 
ing the minds of Congressmen to receiye with 
patience the bitter pill which Secretary Seward's 
statesmanship subsequently showed to be neces- 
sary. The men were giyen up. From this time 
forward Sumner was easily the leader of the 



CHARLES SUMNER 251 

Senate in all matters requiring the genius, learn- 
ing, and wide information of a statesmen. In 
foreign affairs he was specially useful, and when 
the action of France in Mexico, in overturning 
the republican government of Juarez, and other 
dangerous complications, engaged the attention 
of the administration, Sumner's voice and influ- 
ence were powerful in settling some of the most 
troublesome questions. In the reconstruction 
measures that followed the martial subjugation 
of the rebel States, he did not always agree with 
the majority of Republican Senators and Rep- 
resentatives. 

On June i, 1865, he was invited by the city of 
Boston to deliver a eulogy on Lincoln. His 
address on this important and impressive occa- 
sion was somewhat disappointing to his friends. 
His kindly biographer, Mr. Pierce, says : " The 
oration was wanting in artistic unity, in parts 
a sense of due proportion was disregarded, 
and at the end there was a digression which 
seriously marred the effect." It was evident 
that Sumner's attention was rather directed 
to the policies which he hoped to see carried 
out by the administration, and not so much 
to the life and services of the illustrious subject 
of his eulogy. On the proposition to amend 
the Constitution of the United States so that 
it might conform to the changed condition of 
things brought on by the War of the Rebellion, 
he also disagreed with some of his associates, 
and the draft of an amendment which he sub- 
mitted was rejected by the Senate. 



252 STA TESMEN 

During the controversy of the Senate with 
President Johnson, Silmner warmly took the 
part of Secretary Stanton, whom Johnson en- 
deavored to eject from the War Department in 
violation of law ; and the Senator's famous note 
to the Secretary containing- the single word 
" Stick," when Stanton's removal was threatened, 
has become almost classic. 

During the two terms of President Grant, 
Sumner was frequently at odds with the admin- 
istration. He opposed the scheme to acquire ad- 
ditional territory in San Domingo. So frequent 
were the misunderstandings between the Senator 
and the President that many people were dis- 
posed to regard the removal of Senator Sumner 
from the Chairmanship of the Foi'eign Affairs 
Committee of the Senate, and the recall of his 
personal friend, Mr. Motley, Minister to England, 
as the Senator's punishment for having dared to 
oppose the wishes of the President. It is most 
likely that this view of a very painful episode in 
American politics is the correct one. Toward 
the last of his career Senator Sumner lost some 
prestige in his own State and throughout the 
North, in consequence of a resolution which he 
introduced forbidding that the names of battles 
of the civil war should be continued in the 
army register or placed on the regimental colors 
of the United States. This so-called " battle-flag 
resolution " was severely condemned in Sumner's 
own home, and the Massachusetts Legislature 
passed resolutions of disapproval. These reso- 
lutions were subsequently rescinded. 



CHARLES SUMNER 



253 



Senator Sumner died in Washington, March, 
1874, after a long and painful illness. Although 
the country had been prepared for the event, his 
final exit from the stage of life created a pro- 
found impression throughout the country, and 
we may say throughout the civilized world. Ora- 
tions, eulogies, public resolutions and addresses 
testified the appreciation of his services and the 
high estimate in which he was held by the 
people of the republic. At the time of his death 
he was past sixty-three years of age, having been 




Sumner's Tomb in Wit. Auburn Cemetery, near Boston. 

born in January, 181 1. He had been Senator 
continuously for twenty-three years. 

In this sketch I have presented such traits of 
Sumner's character as will enable the reader to 
form a tolerably intelligent and clear estimate of 
the man, his worth, his services, and his place 
in American history. His faults, of which suf- 
ficient mention has already been made, were not 
serious; they were personal and were due to 
Sumner's strongly marked individuality. In 
considering his commanding talents, his eminent 
public services, these defects will sink out of 
sight and be speedily forgotten. But a man 



254 STATESMEN 

possessing such immense vital power and so 
man}' individual peculiarities cannot be iitly 
described without some mention of the minor 
flaws of character that were apparent to those 
who knew him well. Whether he entered the 
fight for freedom from the highest motives or 
not, none will gainsay that the war for the de- 
fence of the Union was more vigorously prose- 
cuted and the cause of human liberty more 
completely successful because of his ardent, con- 
sistent, eloquent, and effective championship. 



.;w^u\\i^\\^ 




Samuel J. Tilden. 
(After a pastel by Sarony in the House at Gramercy Park.) 



IX. 
SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 

A YOUNG man who at the age of eighteen 
should compose a political address directed to 
the people of the great State of New York, and 
by this means should break or weaken a power- 
ful party coalition, would be regarded as a mod- 
el of precociousness ; and philosophers, shaking 
their wise heads over such an example of early 
manifested genius, woidd be very likely to pre- 
dict a barren future for the boy who should be- 
gin life with so much apparent maturity of men- 
tal power. But this is the way that Samuel J. 
Tilden started out in a career which certainly was 
not unfruitful of important results — important to 
him and to the age and time in which he lived. 

This is how it happened : In 1832 there was a 
hot political contest raging in the State of New 
York. There were three parties in the field. 
The anti-Masons, who had been very nearly suc- 
cessful in the contests of previous years, had 
nominated William Wirt for President; the 
Democrats had nominated Andrew Jackson and 
had put up Martin Van Buren as their candidate 
for Vice-President ; and the anti-Jackson men, 
who were really the Whigs of that day (al- 
though not so named, but were called the Nation- 



256 STATESMEN 

al Republicans), had nominated Henry Clay. 
New York was the debatable ground in that na- 
tional campaign. If either two of these three 
parties should combine and work together, the 
coalition would carry that State. Such a com- 
bination was proposed by the anti-Jackson and 
the anti-JNIason men. The anti-Mason party 
nominated Francis Granger for Governor and a 
full ticket of Presidential electors. The anti- 
Jackson men in their convention adopted and en- 
dorsed all these nominations. It was understood 
that both of these parties would support Granger 
for Governor, and that the Presidential electors, 
if chosen, would be divided betw^een Wirt and 
Clay. The situation was alarming to the Jack- 
son men and was eagerlv and anxiously discussed 
in their households. Martin Van Buren was one 
of the leading citizens of Columbia County, New 
York, and a frequent visitor at the home of the 
Tildcns, where the perils of the coalition were 
considered and debated in the hearing of " Sam," 
a sharp, bright lad, then scarcely eighteen years 
old. He was a tall, slender young fellow, with a 
pale face, mild blue eyes, firm lips, and bright 
chestnut-colored hair. He lived in an atmos- 
phere of political excitement. Andrew Jackson's 
fierce and tempestuous public career, his bitter 
partisan administration, and his unrelenting pur- 
suit of his enemies had filled the land with con- 
fusion, and debate ran high. At the country 
store, around the village forge, by the fireside 
and on the farm, an intelligent and quick-witted 
people discussed all sides of the pending politi- 



SAMUEL J. TILBEN 257 

cal questions. Matters that now rest quietly 
enough in the dusty bins of ancient political 
history were then lull of vital importance to 
voters who in their turn have passed from the 
stage of human activity and are no more. 

The boy " Sam " Tilden listened attentively to 
the talk of his elders, and full of the all-impor- 
tant problem — how to break up the coalition of 
the anti-Masons and the anti-Jackson men, he 
went into seclusion ; asking counsel of nobody, he 
wrote an elaborate " Address to the People." In 
this document he appealed by turns to the selfish 
political instincts of both parties to the coalition, 
and put the case in a clear, logical, and convinc- 
ing light, the incongruity of the alliance and the 
risk incurred in dividing the electoral ticket 
being especially dwelt upon. Having finished 
the address, which was pretty long, Samuel sub- 
mitted it to his father's critical examination. The 
father listened to the reading with surprise and 
attention, and although he was secretly pleased 
with the precocity of the lad, he did not venture 
to tell him what he really thought of his work. 
But as Martin Van Buren was then visiting in 
the town, the elder Tilden resolved to show it 
to him. Van Buren, to the father's great de- 
light, was so struck with the force and clearness 
of the address that he advised that it be printed 
without delay and without making any material 
change in its text. It was accordingly put forth 
officially through the columns of an Albany news- 
paper,where it occupied a half-page. It produced 
a great effect upon the campaign, and the vanity 
17 



258 STATESMEN 

of the lad, as we may well suppose, was flattered 
by the fact that many people were so convinced 
that Van Buren was the author of the address 
that that astute politician was obliged publicly 
to deny that he had written it. The coalition 
was broken ; the Democrats carried the State by 
nearly ten thousand majority, and anti-Masonry 
disappeared from the politics of New York. 

The young politician was already fitted for col- 
lege, and in the following 3'ear, 1833, he entered 
Yale, where he was long remembered as a stu- 
dious young undergraduate — good-natured, but 
diffident and shy. His close application to study 
impaired his health, and at the end of the year he 
was obliged to return home. On his recovery it 
was decided for him that his academic course 
should be continued and finished at the University 
of the City of New York, whither he went, and 
where just before he graduated he won a second 
success as a writer on public affairs. This woi-k 
was a review of the political situation of the 
time, with special reference to the question of 
the independent treasury then agitating the peo- 
ple of the United States. Van Buren was now 
President, and the consequences of the financial 
policy pursued by Jackson during his second 
term were a widespread depression in business 
and general suspension of the banks. The gov- 
ernment deposits had been removed from the 
United States Bank and placed in the State 
banks, many of which were in the city of New 
York. This money had been freely used for 
discount and speculative purposes, and after a 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN 259 

series of financial disorders, the money panic of 
1837 swept so swiftly through the land that busi- 
ness was paralyzed and a general stagnation of 
commerce ensued. President Van Buren called 
Congress together in special session and set be- 
fore that body the financial condition of the 
government. His principal recommendation 
was that the treasury of the people should be 
kept by the officers of the government and 
should be entirely separated from the business 
and concerns of the banks. The President's 
recommendations were very hotly discussed in 
New York and elsewhere, and Tilden, now 
twenty-three years old, plunged into the discus- 
sion in a series of papers which were written in 
admirable style and evinced a thorough knowl- 
edge of governmental affairs, political economy, 
law, and finance. These papers, which created a 
profound impression at the time they first ap- 
peared, were sufficiently mature in their judg- 
ment and literary style to be included in the col- 
lection of the writings and speeches of Tilden 
which has been made since his death. 

He also appeared in politics, more conspicu- 
ously, perhaps, when, in 1838, there was organ- 
ized in the Democratic party, to which the Tilden 
family adhered, a diversion in favor of William 
H. Seward, who had just been nominated by the 
Whigs as their candidate for Governor against 
Marcy, who was the nominee of the Democrats. 
United States Senator Tallmadge, of New York, 
was at the head of this movement, and being in 
Columbia County, speaking in behalf of the 



260 



ST A TESMEN 



" bolters," he was greatly surprised by the ap- 
pearance of young Tilden, who, in default of any 
other speaker, mounted the platform at a public 
meeting, and with such skill and familiarity with 
public questions combated the views which bad 
been proposed by Senator Tallmadge. This 
somewhat dramatic appearance of the young 
man in active politics gave him great vogue at 




iff A 






:f\ !«' 




Wi-i^S^^^^^ymyjj^jjj^n^^j^^^^ 






The Tiiden Homestead, where Mr. Tilden was Born, at New Lebanon, N. Y. 



the time and was long afterward remembered as 
one of the most striking incidents of the cam- 
paign, which resulted in the election of William 
II. Seward. 

When Tilden had completed his academic 
course and had passed through the Law School 
of the New York University he became more 
than ever engrossed in politics, and in 1840 he 
prepared an elaborate speech, which he deliv- 
ered in his native towm. New Lebanon, N. Y., 



SAMUEL J. TILDEJSf 261 

in October of that year. The subject of this 
speech, which was " Currency, Prices, and 
Wages," affords a very good clew to the character 
of Tilden's subsequent career. He was always a 
close student of political economy, and as soon 
as he had begun to read anything above the 
ordinary range of boys' books, he tackled with 
remarkable courage the writings of the great 
publicists of this and other countries. He not 
only mastered the details of the financial systems 
of the United States, but grappled successfully 
with the general princii)les of finance as applied 
to the governments of the world. His speech at 
New Lebanon contained, among other things, a 
history of the United States Bank, which is of 
sufficient historical value to make it acceptable, 
even to this day, as a lucid and accurate state- 
ment of the bearings of that great question in the 
politics of the middle of this century. 

Tilden was admitted to the Bar in 1841, and 
opened an office for the practice of his profes- 
sion in the city of New York. His clients were 
not very numerous, and he turned his attention 
to the management of a political newspaper 
enterprise which was now proposed by some of 
the leading men of the Democratic party. He 
became editor of the Morning Nczus, a success- 
ful political newspaper, which supported the 
nomination of James K. Polk in 1844, and was 
active in the canvass of that year. He particu- 
larly devoted himself to the cause of the work- 
ingmen, and threw himself with great animation 
into an attempt to defeat the scheme of the 



202 STATESMEN 

Whio-s, who had expected to divide the vote of 
the State, so that Clay would carry it by a plu- 
rahtv and thus secure his election. Polk carried 
New York by a plurality of a little over five 
thousand, and Silas Wright was elected Govern- 
or over Millard Fillmore, the Whig candidate. 
After the election, Tilden closed his career as an 
editor and returned to the practice of law. In 
the following year he was elected a member of 
the Assembl}', where he devoted himself to the 
discussion of questions relating to finance, the re- 
duction of taxes, and the enlargement of per- 
sonal liberty. 

When the war between the United States and 
Mexico was declared, in 1846, he favored the 
joint resolution supporting the war policy of the 
P(jlk administration and voted for an appropria- 
tion to enroll a New York military contingent. 
In the Constitutional Convention of 1846, of 
which he was a member, he played a distin- 
guished part, his activities being specially di- 
rected to such constitutional provisions as 
should guard with greater safety the public 
treasury and maintain the credit of the State. 
The amendments which he proposed on these 
subjects were of Spartan severity, and if they 
had all been adopted, they would have undoubt- 
edly made the financial system of the State of 
New York much more nearly perfect than it is. 

One of the early triumphs of Mr. Tilden was 
achieved in what is known as the Flagg case, 
and in this and in two or three subsequent causes 
in which he distinguished himself, the character 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN 263 

of the man's mind evinced itself. The Flagg 
case grew out of an election contest between 
Azariah C. Flagg and his competitor, Mr. Giles, 
for the office of Comptroller of New York City. 
The majority of Mr. Flagg was one hundred and 
seventy-nine, and a contest arose over the count- 
ing of the returns. A portion of the tallies in the 
poll were not forthcoming when the case came 
to trial in the courts, but Tilden, by a curious 
process of reconstructing and analyzing the 
tallies already in possession of the court, suc- 
ceeded in establishing as nearly as possible the 
identity of the missing tallies ; and by this pro- 
cess of reconstruction he convinced the court 
that all of the combinations which he laid before 
it made a methodical demonstration in favor of 
Flagg. In effect he placed in the hands of the 
court and jury printed copies of his recon- 
structed tallies and of all the regular tickets, and 
going over them step by step he was enabled to 
demonstrate to the complete satisfaction of all 
impartial observers that his case was impreg- 
nable. The jury returned a verdict in favor of 
Tilden's client. Another case somewhat similar 
which evinced great legal skill in its manage- 
ment was the famous Cunningham-Burdell case. 
This was a cause growing out of the murder of 
Dr. Harvey Burdell, and a suit brought by his 
alleged wife, a Mrs. Cunningham, to recover a 
greater portion of the estate of the deceased 
man. The case was one in which great interest 
was felt all over the country on account of the 
mystery which surrounded the death of Burdell ; 



264 STA TESMEN 

and the astute lawyer who managed the case 
against the Cunningham claimant gained great 
renown not only on account of the notoriety of 
the case itself, but by the happy combination of 
qualities which he exhibited in his management 
of the case. A somewhat similar cause in which 
he figured with great credit was that of the 
Delaware & Hudson Canal Company against 
the Pennsylvania Coal Company. This required 
the exercise of the same variety of talent as 
that employed in unravelling the mysteries and 
intricacies of the before-mentioned suits. The 
point at issue in this case was, whether the 
enlargement of the canal had rendered trans- 
portation cheaper than it had been before its en- 
largement. By a series of computations and 
conclusions, drawn from the books of the canal 
company, Tilden with methodical precision, es- 
tablished a complete defence for the coal com- 
pany. The system which he pursued was a 
combination of skilfulness and ingenuity, and the 
case, which was a novelty in its time, is referred 
to as one in which novel principles and entirely 
original methods of procedure were adc^pted. 
His tables, which were marvels of methodical 
elaborateness, became a species of technical 
standard in matters of this kind. Commenting 
on this case long afterward, Tilden said: '' I re- 
member an anecdote which ex-President Van 
Buren once told me of John Randolph. Some- 
body was speaking to him in a complimentar}^ 
vein in reference to a debate in the House of 
Representatives, and told him that a speech of 




Mr. Tilden's New York House, at No. 15 Gramercy Park. 



266 Sl'ATESMEN 

his had not been answered. ' Answered, sir,' 
said he ; ' it was not made to be answered.' And 
so, sir, these tables were not made to be confuted. 
They are made according to the best process of 
scientific analysis, proved step by step from the 
records of the plaintiffs themselves, and are in- 
troduced here in strict conformity of the rules 
of evidence." Tilden showed that the coal 
company, instead of reaping an advantage from 
the enlargement of the canal, had suffered loss. 
The verdict accordingly was rendered in favor of 
his clients. 

From this time Tilden's career as a lawyer was 
largely devoted to rescuing corporations from 
unprofitable and embarrassing litigation, in reor- 
ganizing their administration, in re-establishing 
their credit, and in rendering their resources 
available. One of his biographers has said : 
" Since the year 1855, it is safe to say that more 
than half the great railway corporations North 
of the Ohio and between the Hudson and Mis- 
souri Rivers were at some time his clients. 
. . . It was here that his legal attainments, 
his unsurpassed skill as a financier, his unlimited 
capacity for concentrated labor, and his con- 
stantly increasing weight of character and per- 
sonal influence found full activity." In other 
words, Mr. Tilden now became what is com- 
monly known as " a railroad lawyer," and he 
laid not only the foundation for notable profes- 
sional success, but also of a large fortune which 
he accumulated during the years ensuing. 

The legal work by which Tilden will longest 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN 267 

be remembered undoubtedly was his service in 
tracing out and exposing the frauds of the so- 
called" " Tammany Ring " that ruled in New 
York during the years from 1869 to 187 1. By 
a series of pohtical manceuvres this combination 
of political adventurers had secured a position 
in the government of the city of New York 
that seemed to be utterly unassailable. The so- 
called Tweed charter of the city gave these 
men, at the head of whom was William M. 
Tweed, full power over the finances — receipts 
and expenditures — of the great metropolis. At 
a single meeting of the Board of Special Audit, 
for example, three men made the order for the 
payment of $6,312,500, of which scarcely ten per 
cent, in value was realized by the city of New 
York. As time advanced, the percentages of 
theft mixed in these bills, which were audited 
and paid under the direction of the members 
of the Tweed ring, grew in amount. In 1870 the 
theft was sixty-six per cent., and a little later it 
was eighty-five per cent. The aggregate of 
fraudulent bills after April 5, 1870, and dur- 
ing the rest of that year, was $12,250,000; in 
1874 it was $3,400,000. Nearly $15,750,000 of 
fraudulent bills were comprised in the booty 
grasped on a single day. So complete was 
the power of this corrupt combination un- 
der the laws of the State, that Mr. Tilden, 
in one of his famous papers on the Tweed 
ring, said that the act of the Legislature might 
have run in this way : " We, the people of the 
State of New York, represented in Senate 



268 STATESMEN 

and Assembly, do by our supreme legislative 
authority hereby grant' William M. Tweed the 
office of Commissioner (^f Public Works, and 
annex thereto, in addition to the powers hereto- 
fore held by the Street Commissioner, all the 
powers heretofore held by the various officers 
of the Croton Department, to have and to hold 
the same for four years, with the privilege of 
extending the term by surrendering any rem- 
nant thereof and receiving a reappointment for 
a further new term of four years, which office 
shall be free and discharged of the power of 
the Governor to remove for cause on charges, 
as in the case of sheriffs, and every power of 
removal by the city government ; and absolutely 
of all accountability whatsoever, unless Mayor 
Hall or some successor shall choose to prefer 
articles of impeachment to the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, and unless all six judges shall attend 
to try such articles." This was exactly the 
operation of the act conferring on the city of 
New York the famous so-called Tweed charter. 
The secret accounts of the ring were published 
in one of the newspapers of the day at the in- 
stance of one of the political associates of Tweed 
and his fellow conspirators. This exposure, 
which created great excitement throughout 
New York, and indeed throughout the whole 
country, was followed up by a combination 
of good citizens, at whose instance the work 
of further unravelling the frauds and bringing 
the offenders to justice was vigorously prose- 
cuted. Mr. Tilden's chief contribution to the 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN 269 

good work was an investigation of the methods 
by which the conspirators divided among them- 
selves the proceeds of their thefts. By obtain- 
ing from one of the banks, under due process of 
law, the checks which had passed through that 
institution, and comparing them with the ac- 
counts in the Comptroller's office, Tilden man- 
aged to expose with convincing lucidity of proof 
the details of the conspiracy. All of these de- 
tails were laid bare with consummate ingenuity 
and with a clearness of statement which left no 
doubt of their accuracy and genuineness. By 
the information which he obtained from the 
banking institution before referred to, he estab- 
lished the fact that but one-third of the nominal 
amount of the bills audited by the city govern- 
ment had ever reached the persons who pre- 
tended to be entitled to the payments, and that 
two-thirds of this great amount had been divided 
among public officers and their accomplices, and 
he traced the dividends into the actual possession 
of some of the accused parties. He thus con- 
verted a strong suspicion into mathematical 
certainty and furnished judicial proof against 
the guilty parties. In process of time the ring 
was broken, its power was utterly destroved, and 
the chief conspirator, after having been brought 
back a fugitive from a foreign land, was sen- 
tenced to jail, where he died miserably. 

During the entire period of the wicked ascen- 
dency of the Tweed ring Tilden had been con- 
tinued as Chairman of the State Democratic 
Committee, but he did not share in its corrupt 




^'''l/'/'i',u\' 



J I if// 






iw ^>\ 



SAMUEL J. TILDKN 271 

councils, and he was kept ignorant of its auda- 
cious schemes. There was no bond of sympa- 
thy between him and the vulgar creatures who 
had taken possession of the government of the 
city of New York, and when he had succeeded 
in the work of capturing the stronghold of the 
Tweed ring, he entered the Assembly of the 
State as a member and engaged in the work of 
repealing the laws that gave to this conspiracy 
its power, and in purging the statute books of all 
legislation that had been framed to enable the 
adventurers to carry on their nefarious schemes. 
It is fair to presume that it was at this time 
that Tilden conceived the ambition of becoming 
President of the United States. His popularity 
and repute as a reformer and as an exterminator 
of gross political abuses were now very thor- 
oughly established. His name was in the mouths 
of all men, and he had contrived without appar- 
ent injustice to others to secure for himself great 
credit of the entire work of overthrowing one of 
the most powerful and apparently impregnable 
political combinations ever made in this country. 
This was his opportunity. The Governorship to 
which he was elected in 1874 became a stepping- 
stone to secure the nomination of his party in 
1876. His name was identified with adminis- 
trative reform, and his political methods were 
those of a complete and wellnigh perfect organ- 
ization. His inaugural address as Governor was 
devoted to questions of political economy, and 
one of the earliest acts of his administration was 
to attack the " Canal Ring-." This was another 



272 STATESMEN 

combination by which the grossest abuses in the 
management of the Erie and Champlain Canals 
had long been maintained. By a system of false 
accounts and prodigal expenditures the managers 
of the ring had robbed the State and oppressed 
its internal commerce. Tilden's vigorous efforts 
in the overthrow of this corrupt combination re- 
claimed a great sum of money from the con- 
spirators and readjusted the whole scheme and 
policv of canal management. His public admin- 
istration, therefore, had been signalized by the 
overthrow of the Tweed ring and the Canal 
ring, and a decrease of the tax budget of the 
State of New York by nearly one-half. His 
p(jsition in 1876 was most fortunate. He was 
virtually master of the Democratic party, then 
ascendant in his State, and had gained a national 
reputation for honesty and administrative ability 
which was certainly not surpassed by any states- 
man of his time. Although there was a vigor- 
ous opposition organized against his nomination 
by the national convention of his party, he 
succeeded in carrying off the honors, and was 
the accepted and accredited candidate of his 
party that year, being opposed by Rutherford 
B. Hayes, the Republican nominee. 

It was generally supposed that the votes of 
the States recently in rebellion could be safely 
counted on to vote for Tilden, but when the 
returns were made up it was found that South 
Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida were included 
in the list of States claimed by the Republicans. 
The colored people in those three States were 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN 273 

naturally regarded as secure for the Republican 
candidate. The white population of South Caro- 
lina was only two hundred and eighty-nine thou- 
sand, while the colored population was four hun- 
dred and fifteen thousand, and the disparity 
of the white and colored races in the three 
States above named, it was claimed, justified 
the belief that the returns as made out by the 
election officers were trustworthy. Both parties 
persisted in claiming a victory in the three 
States, and the confidence of the leaders in- 
flamed the excitement of the masses of voters. 
A long contest ensued in each of these States, 
and representatives of the two parties pro- 
ceeded in hot haste to the respective capitals 
of the States in order to see that " a fair count " 
was had. So great was the excitement through- 
out the country that General Grant, wdio was 
then President, felt constrained to send to Gen- 
eral Sherman, who commanded the army of the 
United States, this memorable despatch : " In- 
struct General Augur, in Louisiana, and General 
Ruger, in Florida, to be vigilant with the force 
at their command, to preserve peace and good 
order, and to see that the proper and legal 
boards of canvassers are unmolested in the per- 
formance of their duties. Should there be an)' 
grounds of suspicion of a fraudulent count on 
either side it should be reported and denounced 
at once. No man worthy of the office of Presi- 
dent should be willing to hold it if counted in or 
placed there by fraud. Either party can afford 
to be disappointed in the result ; the country 
18 



274 STATESMEN 

cannot afford to have the result tainted by the 
suspicion of illegal or false returns." 

The final result of the contests in the three 
States, as determined by the canvassing boards, 
gave the electoral votes in each one of them to 
Hayes, and later in November, 1876, when the 
electors met in the several States, the count 
from all the States of the Union showed one 
hundred and eighty-five electors ' for Hayes 
and one hundred and eighty-four for Tilden. 
The Democrats had hoped up to the last that at 
least some one of the States, or possibly one of 
the electors in one of the three States, would be 
returned for Tilden, and when they found that 
every vote of the three States was counted for 
Hayes, their anger was intense. Threats were 
made that General Hayes should never be in- 
augurated as President of the United States, and 
a fierce excitement swept over the country. As 
the time drew near when the electoral votes 
should be counted by Congress in joint session 
of both Houses, this excitement became deeper 
and more strained. Under the existing law it 
was directed that " No electoral vote objected to 
shall be counted, except by the concurrent votes 
of the two Houses." At this time the House of 
Representatives had a Democratic majority and 
the Senate had a Republican majority. It was 
obvious that either of the two Houses could pre- 
vent the counting of an electoral vote. Accord- 
ingly, after a long and heated discussion, a bill 
was passed by both Houses providing for the 
creation of an Electoral Commission, to which 



276 STATESMEN 

bcjd}- all the questions in dispute should be re- 
ferred. This commission was to be composed 
of five members of the Senate, five members of 
the House, and five Justices of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. This Electoral Com- 
mission was finally organized on the thirty-first 
day of January, 1877, ^^^d was composed as fol- 
lows : Nathan Clifford, Samuel F. Miller, Ste- 
phen J. Field, William Strong, Joseph P. Brad- 
ley, Justices of the Supreme Court ; George F. 
Edmunds, Oliver P. Morton, Frederick T. Fre- 
linghuysen, Thomas F. Ba^^ard, Allen G, Thur- 
man, United States Senators ; Henry B, Payne, 
Eppa Hunton, Josiah G. x\bbott, James A. Gar- 
field, and George F, Hoar, Representatives in 
Congress — eight Republicans and seven Demo- 
crats. It had been generally supposed that the 
fifth justice selected for this commission would 
be David Davis, of Illinois, then a Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. Judge 
Davis was classed as an Independent, although 
there was an impression abroad that he would 
cast his vote in favor of Tilden. By a singular 
combination of circumstances he was not able to 
serve on the commission, having at that juncture 
been elected United States Senator from the 
State of Illinois. His place was taken by Jus- 
tice Bradley, of New Jersey, who served on the 
commission. The result of a long, laborious, 
and absorbingly interesting contest before the 
commission was a decision in favor of General 
Haj^es b}' a vote of eight to seven, and the find- 
ing of the commission was finally confirmed. 



SAMUEL J. T I LB EN 277 

Other complications arose in this contest in con- 
sequence of the failure of the Presidential elec- 
tors from the State of Oregon to present a 
unanimous report. This point was also decided 
in favor of General Hayes by the Electoral Com- 
mission, before which body it came. 

An unpleasant sequel to this most unfortunate 
dispute was the production of a series of cipher 
despatches which had passed between the friends 
of Mr. Tilden during the exciting period of the 
count in the winter of 1876-7. These despatches 
had been brought into the custody of a committee 
of the United States Senate by subpoenas and 
were finally unravelled by an expert, and the con- 
troversy, which had been reopened by Tilden's 
friends, became even more acrimonious than 
before. . The investigation which followed 
showed that the friends of Tilden had been 
engaged in an effort, which proved abortive, to 
use money corruptly to influence the action of 
returning boards or to secure the votes of Presi- 
dential electors in some of the States where 
contests were made. Tilden appeared before 
the committee of investigation and swore that 
he knew nothing of an}' of these telegrams, and 
that when he was informed of certain negotia- 
tions in South Carolina he had stopped them. 
He emphatically declared that he scorned to de- 
fend his title by such means as were emploj'ed 
to secure a felonious possession. 

Probably the actual merits of this most un- 
happy controversy will not be satisfactorily 
adjusted during the lifetime of the present gen- 



278 STATESMEN 

eration of men. Commentini^ on the final out- 
come of this deplorable business, Blaine in his 
" Twenty Years in Congress " says : " The inter- 
est throughout the investigation centred upon 
Mr. Tilden, and concerning him and his course 
there followed general discussion, angry accu- 
sation, and warm defence. There is nothing in 
the testimony to contradict the oath taken by 
Mr. Tilden, and there has been no desire to fasten 
a guilty responsibility upon him. But the simple 
fact remains, that a Presidential canvass which 
began with a ponderous manifesto in favor of 
ref(3rm in every department of the government, 
and which accused those who had been in- 
trusted with power for sixteen years of every 
form of dishonesty and corruption, ended with 
a persistent and shameless effort to bribe the 
electors of three States." But no biographical 
sketch of Tilden would be complete unless it in- 
sisted, as Blaine has insisted, that there has been 
no serious attempt to fasten upon his character 
any accusation of complicity in the corrupt ef- 
forts made to put him into the Presidency. 

Mr. Tilden died at his country place, August 
4, 1886. 

The model for Tilden's political career was 
Martin Van Buren, whom he admired for his 
many talents and respected for his private worth. 
As a lad Tilden became well acquainted with 
Van Buren and his family, and as he advanced 
to mature years he was admitted to the inti- 
macy and confidence of the " Sage of Kinder- 
hook," as Van Buren was familiarl}- called by 



V. 



^ 




280 STATESMEN 

his admiring neighbors. Van Biiren was a mas- 
ter of political strategy, and in the history of 
American politics he stands without a rival as a 
manager of men. Tilden was adroit, ingenious, 
and cautious. He was skilful in planning and 
strong in execution, and he inspired his party 
with a courage and energy which up to the time 
of his becoming its natural leader it had failed 
to evince. Although Tilden was during the 
greater part of his life immersed in active poli- 
tics, his tastes were scholarly and refined. He 
was a high authority in bibliography and was a 
zealous and untiring collector of books and manu- 
scrijjts relating to American history. His house, 
which in later years became an abode of ele- 
gant leisure, was stored with rich treasures of 
art and literature. In everything that pertained 
to American history and to the advancement of 
American interests Tilden was an enthusiastic 
and devoted patriot. His manner in social inter- 
course was variable. At times he was mysteri- 
ous and secretive and at other times cordial and 
frank to the last degree. Probably very few per- 
sons were admitted to his closest intimacy, and he 
died as he lived, without acquiring any permanent 
hold on the affections of the whole people. By 
the terms of his will the bulk of a fortune of sev- 
eral millions was bequeathed to the cit}" of New 
York for the building and maintenance of a great 
public library. By an imfortunate judicial con- 
struction of the terms of this will the greater part 
of his princely benefaction was diverted to the 
uses of collateral heirs of the Tilden estate. 




James G. Blaine. 



X. 

JAMES G. BLAINE. 

We have seen how the precocious promise of 
the youth of one statesman, Samuel J. Tilden, 
was amply fulfilled in his maturer years. But 
the historian will say that this was an exception 
to a general rule. Brilliant men have not usually 
evinced much of their brightness in their boy- 
hood. There is great hope for the dull boy, after 
all. James G. Blaine, if not a boy of very com- 
monplace traits of mental character, certainly was 
not a lad of remarkable promise. When he was 
a student at Washington College, in Western 
Pennsylvania, one who knew him well said of 
him tliat " he was a plain, quiet, good-tempered, 
studious boy," remarkable for nothing but his 
love of reading, and giving no hint of the great- 
ness of his future career as a statesman. One of 
his college mates has said of him : " I knew 
Blaine at Washington College, he being in the 
next class below me. Blaine's parents lived at 
Washington during their son's college course, 
and on that account the students saw less of 
' Jim ' Blaine, as he was familiarly called, than if 
he had boarded at the college instead of at home. 
Young Blaine was a sturdy, heavy-set, matter-of- 
fact looking young fellow, not at all prepossess- 



2S2 STATESMEN 

ing" in appearance, and exceeding-ly awkward at 
times, and giving no hint of the elegant gentle- 
man he has grown to be. He was never seen on 
the street or play-ground, and rarely mingled in 
the customary sports of the boys. I remember 
we had a very fine foot-ball ground, but I never 
remember to have seen young Blaine on it. In 
fact, I cannot say for certain that I ever saw him 
engaged in any kind of sport during the entire 
time I was at college. It is my impression that 
he passed all his leisure at home or in one of the 
college halls or with a book. He was a great 
reader, almost a book-worm, and would become 
absorbed to a wonderful degree in his books." 

The bent of his mind, so far as it was mani- 
fested at all, was in the direction of newspaper 
writing. In his graduation address, delivered in 
September, 1847, when he w^as in the eighteenth 
year of his age, he devoted himself to " The Duty 
of an Educated American." Texas had just been 
annexed to the United States, and gold had just 
been discovered in California. The budding 
young statesman said : " The sphere of labor for 
the educated American is continually enlarging. 
But recently we added the vast dominion of the 
Lone Star Republic to our glorious Union. The 
war to which that act gave rise is now in victo- 
rious progress, and will not end without another 
great accession to our territory, possibl}^ carry- 
ing our flag beyond the Great American Desert 
to the shores of the Pacific sea. Where our 
armies march, population follows; and the full 
duty for the scholar is to be continental in ex- 



JAMES G. BLAINE 283 

tent and as varied as the domains of a progres- 
sive civilization." It will be observed that the 
youthful orator took no part in the discussion 
that then raged among his elders as to the right- 
eousness or injustice of the annexation of Texas 
and the war which it provoked. 

After graduation, Blaine found employment as 
a professor of mathematics in a military school 
at Blue Lick Springs, Ky., where about two 
hundred young students, sons of the planters 
of the South, were pupils. These lads were of a 
class hard to govern, and early in his connection 
with the school there was a rebellion against the 
faculty. Some of the students attacked the pro- 
fessors with pistols and knives, but Blaine, who 
was conspicuous in this fight at the head of the 
faculty, used only his fists and arms, and his par- 
ty finally triumphed in the fight, and Blaine 
won from the young Southerners more respect 
on account of his having been the hero of the 
struggle than if he had been only the accom- 
plished professor that he was. 

In the third year of his professorship at Blue 
Lick, having married Miss Harriet Stanwood, of 
Maine, he went to her native State, where he 
tarried for a time ; then returned to Pennsyl- 
vania and taught in the Philadelphia Blind Asy- 
lum. But from 1854 onward he was wholly 
identified with Maine, having taken up his resi- 
dence at Augusta, the capital of that State. He 
became part owner and editor-in-chief of the Koi- 
7icbcc Journal, and entered upon a career of active 
pcjlitics and j<jurnalism. It is interesting to note 



284 STATESMEN 

here that early in his editorial work Blaine 
evinced his high admiration for Henry Clay, 
who, as everybody now knows, was the pattern 
and exemplar of the life and career of the future 
" Man from Maine." Blaine was always pleased 
when a parallel in his and Clay's public life was 
found, and he never disguised the ardent ad- 
miration which Clay's character and services 
inspired in him. In his newspaper, very soon 
after he took charge of it, Blaine said: "As a 
speaker, Mr. Clay is very earnest and persuasive ; 
not polished either in manner or diction, but still 
irresistibly pleasing. He speaks from the soul, 
and the moment you hear him )"0u are assured 
that he gives utterance only to what he knows 
and feels to be the truth and the cause of human 
freedom." 

Blaine's first public address was made with 
much diffidence, because he had not been suc- 
cessful as a debater in the literary society of his 
college, had had no experience, and was nervous 
and easily embarrassed, and his speech was hin- 
dered by a slight impediment. He had attended 
the first national convention of the Republican 
party, which was held at Philadelphia in 1856, 
and on his return he was asked to address a 
meeting of his fellow Republicans in Augusta, to 
tell them the stor}^ of the convention's doings. 
When he became accustomed to the sound of 
his voice, and the friendly audience before him 
encouraged him by their sympathetic applause, 
he was emboldened to make what was said to 
be a very creditable speech. A more important 



JAMES G. BLAINE 



285 



address, however, was delivered at a Republican 
meeting in Litchfield, Me., during the following 
month. This speech was carefully prepared and 
committed to memor}- and was notable for its 
conservatism and for the moderation of state- 
ment which characterized it. 

He was actively engaged in the political cam- 
paign of 1856, when Fremont was the Republican 
candidate for the Presidency ; and in 1858 he was 




The Birthplace of Mr. Blaine at Wpst Brownsville, Pa. 

elected for the first time in his life to a political 
office, being a member of the Assembly of the 
Maine Legislature. He now devoted himself to 
a careful and exhaustive study of the rules of 
parliamentary usage and the manual of debate. 
He was an assiduous student of all public ques- 
tions and was master of the methods of pro- 
cedure in legislative bodies, not, as many have 
supposed, by reason of his powers of intuition, 
but by a diligent study of rules, precedents, 



286 STA TESMEN 

and historical examples. These acquisitions of 
knowledge formed the, basis of his election as 
Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 
Maine Legislature two years later. He served 
two terms, and his training in the Legislature as 
member and presiding officer fitted him for the 
honor which was still later conferred upon him 
by the national House of Representatives. 

His studies continued to be ardent, and he 
spent his nights in storing his mind with useful 
political knowledge and in almost committing to 
memory the political history not only of his 
adopted State, but of all the other States of the 
Union. One of his first speeches of general 
and national interest was on a proposition in 
Congress favoring the purchase of Cuba by 
the United States. In a speech before the Leg- 
islature, where the question was incidentally 
brought up, he said : " The proposition to place 
thirty millions of dollars at the disposal of the 
President, and to run the nation in debt for the 
purpose of raising the money ; to surrender 
to him the power to make treaties, annex Ter- 
ritories and States ; to create him absolute 
dictator, with the purse of the nation in one 
hand and the sword in the other ; to have peace 
or war, prosperity or misfortune follow at his 
will or to be decided b}- his errors — such a 
proposition, I say, is too monstrous to be en- 
tertained for one moment by anyone who values 
the preservation of constitutional rights and the 
perpetuity of a republican imion." 

Althouirh Blaine was not born in the State 



JAMES G. BLAINE 287 

with which his name is so indissolubly con- 
nected, the people of that region have never 
apparently regarded him other than as one (^f 
themselves. His glory is their glory, and his 
fame is their own. Writing of him in later years, 
Governor Edward Kent said : " Before he was 
twenty-nine he was chosen chairman of the exec- 
utive committee of the Republican organization 
in Maine, a position from which he shaped and 
directed political matters in the State, leading 
his party to brilliant victory. Had Mr. Blaine 
been New England born he would probably not 
have received such rapid advancement at so 
early an age, even with the same ability that he 
possessed ; but there was a sort of Western dash 
about him that took with us Down-Easters — an 
expression of frankness, candor, and confidence 
that gave him from the start a very strong and 
permanent hold on our people, and as the foun- 
dation of all, pure character and a masterly abil- 
ity equal to all demands made upon him." 

The most notable speech made by Blaine dur- 
ing his term of service in the Legislature was 
on the war power of Congress as involved in 
the question of confiscation of rebel property. 
He took the Lincoln view of the power of the 
nation and approved unqualifiedly President 
Lincoln's propositions regarding the question of 
confiscation. In his devotion to the Republican 
cause, Blaine went to the Chicago convention as 
a delegate in i860. He had pledged himself to 
the Lincoln interest and refused to be won over 
to the Seward column, although a number of the 



^88 



STATESMEN 



Maine delegates supported the cause of Seward. 
Earlier than this, when Lincoln and Douglas 
were liaving their memorable oratorical contest 
for the Senatorship in 1858, Blaine was on the 
scene with his pen describing the wonderful de- 
bate for his little newspaper in Augusta, Me. 




Mr. Blaine at Thirty Yeats of Age. 

In one of his letters he ventured the prediction 
that Lincoln would be defeated for Senator by 
Douglas, but would beat Douglas for President 
in i860. This letter was copied from the Kenne- 
bec Journal into several Illinois papers friendly 
to Linct)ln, and Lincoln himself cut it out and 
carried it in his ^jocket-book until long after he 



JAMES G. BLAINE 2S9 

was inaugurated President. When Lincoln and 
Blaine met in Washington, after the election of 
the Maine man to the House of Representatives, 
their friendship became at once strong, and it 
lasted with the life of the great President. 

Blaine was elected to the Thirty-eighth Con- 
gress in 1862, succeeding Anson P. Morrill. 
Among the prominent men in the House at that 
time were Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland ; 
John A. Bingham and Samuel Shellaberger, of 
Ohio ; General Schenck, of Ohio ; Thaddeus 
Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and James A. Garfield, 
of Ohio. When Blaine was sworn in by the 
Speaker of the House, Garfield, who was to be- 
come his most intimate friend in Congress, stood 
upon his right and William B. Allison, of Ohio, 
on his left. This was the beginning of one of 
the most notable terms of Congressional service 
which has been enjoyed by any American. He 
was seven times elected to Congress, making 
fourteen years in all, and was elected by the 
House three times Speaker, making his service 
in the chair six years. 

His first speech in Congress was during the 
spring succeeding the beginning of his term in 
the House, when he made an elaborate address 
on the subject, " Can the Country Sustain the Ex- 
penses of the War and Pay the Debt which it 
will involve ? " It is needless to say that Blaine 
boldly advocated the assumption by the National 
Government of all the debts incurred by the 
States in the prosecution of the war. His 
speech was a business-like statement of the finan- 
19 



290 STATESMEN 

cial condition of the government, its resources, 
and its pecuniary liabilities and possibilities. It 
was a model of clearness and strength and was 
admirably calculated to restore public confidence 
and strengthen the faith of the people in the 
ability of the National Government to prosecute 
the war to its end and to adjust satisfactorily 
the burdens of taxation which the great debts in- 
curred would make necessary. At that time 
there were many timid souls who apparently 
dreaded bankruptcy more than they feared the 
dissolution of the Union. Blaine was one of the 
more courageous statesmen who, while he be- 
lieved in the righteousness of the cause of the 
country, never for one moment doubted its abil- 
ity to carry on the war, sustained as it would be 
by the patriotism of the people. He showed 
that even this great national debt, which he 
estimated at three thousand millions of dollars, 
could be easily borne by the country, and was 
not greater in proportion than the debt assumed 
by our government at the time it was founded in 
1779. His historical parallel was a striking one, 
and by quoting from Jefferson's estimates of the 
financial carrying capacity of the people in 1779, 
he argued that the republic of this later time 
was even more competent to bear its burden 
than it was at the close of the War of the Revo- 
lution. 

This speech, which was circulated by hun- 
dreds of thousands of copies throughout the 
United States, concluded with these memorable 
sentences : " These are the Sfreat elements of 



JAMES G. BLAINE 



291 



material progress, and they comprehend the 
entire circle of human enterprise, agriculture, 
commerce, manufacture, mining. They assure 
to us an increase in property and population 
that will surpass the most sanguine deductions 
of our census tables, framed as those tables are 
upon the ratios and relations of our workers 
in the past ; they give into our hands, under 



^>^.. ¥fft 




Where Mr. Blaine went to School at West Brownsville, Pa. 

the blessing of Almighty God, the power to 
command our fate as a nation ; they hold out 
to us the grandest future reserved for any peo- 
ple, and with this promise they teach us the 
lesson of patience and render confidence and 
fortitude a duty. With such amplitude and 
affluence of resources, and with such a vast 
stake at issue, we should be unworthy of our 
lineage and inheritance if we for one moment 
mistrusted our ability to maintain ourselves a 



292 STATESMEN 

united people with one country, one constitu- 
tion, one destiny." 

Blaine contented himself, however, during his 
tirst term in Congress with speaking briefly on a 
variety of important measures, including those 
for the adjustment of the revenue, tariff for pro- 
tection of American industries, a law in refer- 
ence to fugitive slaves, and other similar subjects. 
But his remarks on these questions, while they 
were short, were always pungent, crisp, and full 
of information. It may be truly said of him 
that he never spoke without an absolute and 
full comprehension of his subject, whatever it 
might be. 

He was a " hard-money " man, and during a 
debate on an act of Congress proposed to pre- 
vent the depreciation of greenbacks and the ap- 
preciation of gold, he said : " This whole bill 
aims at what is simply impossible. You cannot 
by Congressional enactment make a coined dol- 
lar worth less than it is, nor a paper dollar worth 
more than it is. I think w^e had experience 
enough in that direction with the famous gold 
bill at the last session. . . . The bill under 
consideration has already had a most pernicious 
effect, and should it become a law no man can 
measure the degree of its hurtful influence." 
Although the bill had the powerful support of 
Thaddeus Stevens, who was the chairman of the 
House Committee of Ways and Means, it was 
soon after withdraw^n, as the arguments against 
it were too pow^erful for its friends to overcome. 
Reconstruction measures naturally engaged 



JAMES G. BLAINE 293 

much attention in Congress at this time, and 
Blaine's attitude on some of the great questions 
which came up from time to time was consist- 
ent, manly, and patriotic. He insisted that the 
basis of representation should be so arranged 
that the newly enfranchised negroes of the South- 
ern States should not be deprived of their rights, 
and that the representation of those States should 
be diminished just so far as the right of suffrage 
was curtailed by law or by usage. 

During the long session of the Thirty-ninth 
Congress, in 1866, occurred the celebrated 
Blaine-Conkling episode which resulted in the 
hfe-long estrangement of these two eminent 
men. Conkling was an educated lawyer, im- 
perious in his manner and impatient of opposi- 
tion. General James B. Fry, who had been a 
provost -marshal -general in the State of New 
York during the war, was violently assailed by 
Representative Conkling in the course of debate 
in the House. Blaine came to the rescue * of 
General Fry, and the two Representatives be- 
came involved in a bitter personal controversy. 
The outcome of the long and acrimonious debate 
was a polished shaft from Blaine's quiver directed 
at Conkling's well-known personal vanity. The 
weapon struck its mark, and Conkling never 
forgave Blaine for this conspicuous and rankling 
wound. From that day until he died he never 
exchanged a word with Blaine and apparently 
never saw him, although the two men were as- 
sociated together as members of the same party 
in the House and in the Senate for more than 



294 ST A TEf^MEN 

fifteen years, and it may here be said that wher- 
ever Conkling's iniluence could harass the am- 
bition or hinder the upward steps of his adver- 
sary, harassment and hinderance were in the 
way. 

Before Blaine was elected Speaker, he occa- 
sionally was called to the chair by the presiding 
officer, and he became one of the most conspic- 
uous figures among the younger members of the 
majority of the House. His personal qualities 
were speedily made the subject of comment by 
observers, and visitors to the House of Rep- 
resentatives usually asked first to be shown 
Blaine. A newspaper correspondent writing at 
this time says : " Blaine is metallic ; you cannot 
conceive how a shot would pierce him, for 
there seems to be no joint in his harness. He is 
a man who knows what the weather was yester- 
day morning in Dakota; what the Emperor's pol- 
icy will be touching Mexico ; on what day of the 
week the i6th of December, proximo, will fall; 
who is chairman of the school committee in 
Kennebunk; what is the best way of managing 
the national debt ; together with all the other 
interests of to-day, which anybody else would 
stagger under. How he does it nobody knows. 
He is always in his place. He must absorb de- 
tails by assimilation at his finger-ends. As I 
said, he is clear metal ; his features are cast in a 
mould ; his attitudes are those of a bi'onze figure ; 
his voice clinks, and he has ideas as fixed as 
brass." 

Blaine's first election as Speaker was on 



JAMES G. BLAINE 295 

the 4th of March, 1869, when he succeeded 
Schuyler Colfax, who had just been inaugu- 
rated as Vice-President of the United States. 
As Speaker he was alert, thoroughly well versed 
in parliamentary usage and in the rules, regula- 
tions, and precedents of his high ofifice. He was 
impartial, quick, self-poised, and in all respects 
probably the best equipped parliamentarian who 
ever occupied the chair, except only (possibly) 
his great exemplar, Henry Clay, who still holds 
the reputation of being the best Speaker who 
ever presided over the House of Representa- 
tives. He spent more hours in the chair than 
any of his predecessors had been in the habit of 
doing, and was almost never absent from his 
place. His strength appeared to be indomitable, 
and through some of the longest sessions of the 
House he remained at his post without apparent 
fatigue. He was always courteous and fair, and 
never lost his head ; when the most exciting 
scenes of parliamentary confusion raged around 
him, he alone remained immovable, composed, 
and intently observant of every detail of the tu- 
multuous sea that was enclosed within the walls 
of the House. In a farewell address delivered 
when he finally laid down the emblem of his 
office for the last time, he admirably set forth 
the conditions under which the presiding officer 
must administer his duties in these words : 
" The Speakership of the American House of 
Representatives is a post of honor, of dignity, 
of power, of responsibility. Its duties are at 
once complex and continuous ; they are both 



296 STA TEHMEN 

onerous and delicate ; they are performed in 
the bright light of day under the eye of the 
whole people, subject at all times to the clos- 
est observation and always attended with the 
sharpest criticism. I think no other official 
is held to such instant and such rigid account- 
ability. Parliamentary rulings in their very 
nature are peremptor}-, almost absolute in au- 
thority and instantaneous in effect. They can- 
not always be enforced in such a way as to win 
applause or secure popularity, but I am sure 
that no man of any party who is worthy to fill 
this chair will ever see a dividing line between 
duty and policy." 

During the latter part of Blaine's career in the 
House of Representatives he delivered one of 
his most remarkable speeches, which was on a 
proposition to extend amnesty to Jefferson Davis. 
The speech was made with all the vigor and en- 
ergy of his character, and its unexpectedness, 
coming as it did like a fierce gale sweeping 
down from the North, so staggered and dis- 
mayed the advocates of this variety of " magna- 
nimity " that they hated the speaker, while they 
were forced to admire the audacity of his attack 
and the spirit with which it was made. The ad- 
dress is generally known as the " Andersonville 
Speech," because Blaine did not so much object 
to Davis's political rehabilitation on the ground 
that he was the rebel chieftain as because in his 
capacity as President of the Confederacy he had 
sanctioned, authorized, and approved the atroci- 
ties practised (jn Union prisoners confined in the 



JAMES O. BLAINE 297 

Andersonville prison. Blaine's picture of the 
horrors of Andersonville, materials for which 
were drawn from rebel archives, as well as 
from the history of the time, was one of fright- 
ful vividness and realism. He quoted from doc- 
uments written by Union and by secession of^- 
cials, and from the testimony of persons who may 
be regarded as impartial, to prove the truth of 
the allegations which he brought not only against 
the management of the prison pen, but against 
the rebel chieftain himself. The argumentative 
portion of his speech is included in these words : 
" It is often said that we shall lift Mr. Davis 
again into great consequence by refusing him 
amnesty. That is not for me to consider. I 
only see before me, when his name is presented, 
a man who by a wave of his hand, by a nod of his 
head, could have put an end to the atrocious 
cruelties at Andersonville. Some of us had kins- 
men there, many of us had friends there, all of 
us had countrymen there. I here protest, and 
shall with my vote protest, against calling back 
and crowning with the honors of full American 
citizenship the man who stands responsible for 
that organized murder." The bill did not pass. 

The episode of the so-called Mulligan letters 
might be passed over in silence, but it is well 
enough to recall the facts. A certain package 
of missing letters was the focal point around 
which raged a bitter controversy. These were 
in Blaine's possession ; and that was a dramatic 
scene in the House when, having reached the 
close of a preliminary statement of the case 



298 



STATESMEN 



against him, lie seized the package of letters ly- 
ing on his desk and brandished them in the face 
of the House. It had been said that the letters 
were destroyed and that he would never dare 
to have them printed. He now proceeded to 
have them read, one by one, and they were duly 



3 s 




K 



||iliii!lihNT'i||l'i||l|ll|W 









Mr. Blaine's Home at Augusta, Me. 

spread upon the records of the day's doings. 
Not to go more minutely into this unhappy busi- 
ness, it may be said that the investigating com- 
mittee finally dropped the whole inquiry and 
failed to write out any opinion upon the testi- 
mony taken or to make an official report upon 
a matter which ior a time aroused the atten- 



JAMES Cr. BLAINE 299 

tion not only of Congress but of the whole 
country. 

Exactly when the Presidential ambition began 
to take shape in the mind of Blaine it is impossi- 
ble to sav, but he rtrst appeared as a proncjiniced 
candidate in the Republican convention of 1876. 
On the first ballot he led with two luuidred and 
eighty-tive votes, L. P. Mortcjn followed with one 
hundred and twent3'-five, Benjamin H. Bristow 
one hundred and thirteen, Roscoe Conkling 
ninetv-uine, Rutherford B. Hayes sixty-one, and 
three other candidates had seventy-two votes all 
told. After seven ballots Rutherford B. Hayes 
was nominated, having five votes more than was 
necessary for a choice. It was at this convention 
that a phrase which subsequently became cele- 
brated was first applied to Blaine. Robert G. 
Ingersoll, in the course of his speech nominating 
Blaine, said : " Like an armed warrior, like a 
plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down 
the halls of the American Congress and threw 
his shining lance full and fair against the brazen 
foreheads of the defamers of his countrv and the 
maligners of his honor. For the Republican 
party to desert this gallant leader now is as 
though an army should desert their general up- 
on the field of battle." While this convention 
was in session Blaine remained in Washington. 
The weather was excessively hot, and on the Sun- 
day previous to the assembling of the conven- 
tion, Blaine, walking to church, was prostrated 
by a sun-stroke. He did not fully recover until 
the w(^rk of tlie convention was well under \\i\\, 



300 STATESMEN 

and in the meantime reports of his death were 
circulated far and wide. It was believed by his 
devoted followers that this untoward casualty 
deprived him of the nomination, which otherwise 
was easily within his reach. 

Blaine's first term of service in the United 
States Senate was by virtue of an appointment 
by the Governor to fill a vacancy. He was sub- 
sequently elected by the Legislature upon its 
assembling, notwithstanding an ardent effort on 
the part of his enemies to defeat his promotion 
to the Senate. When the Legislature assembled 
it was found that copies of the attacks made 
upon him during the Mulligan controversy had 
been mailed to all of the members, and the State 
House was deluged with printed matter calcu- 
lated to prejudice the minds of the members 
against their stalwart leader. This attempt, 
however, was defeated, and, curiously enough, 
Democrats and Republicans united in their choice 
of Blaine, who was elected to the Senate by the 
unanimous vote of the Legislature, something 
unprecedented in political history. In the Senate 
his appearance was dreaded bv some of the more 
conservative members, who were afraid that his 
brilliancy and picturesque method of conducting 
debate would interfere with the more solemn tra- 
ditions of their conclave. They were, however, 
speedily reassured, and the newly elected Sena- 
tor from Maine took his seat with becoming 
modesty and did not for some time participate 
largely in the debates. His first carefully pre- 
pared speech as Senator was made in opposition 



JAMES G. BLAINE 301 

to the silver craze, which was then at its height, 
and he opposed the inflation theories of the far 
West with a temperate and deprecatory argu- 
ment addressed to the better judgment of the 
people. He argued that Congress had no more 
power to demonetize silver than to demonetize 
gold, and he advocated a policy of co-operating 
with foreign nations to secure a uniform standard 
of silver with gold. His speech went to the root 
of the matter, and it is to this day regarded as an 
admirable exposition of a sound financial policy 
to be pursued in regard to maintaining the parity 
of gold and silver. 

Another topic which Blaine took up with much 
zest, and in the discussion of which he showed 
the results of profound thought and careful 
study, was South American trade with the 
United States. In this speech he outlined to 
some extent the policy which he pursued later 
on when he became Secretary of State. He ad- 
vocated the payment of subsidies to American 
lines of steamships between the ports of the 
United States and Central America and South 
America. He showed how the great trade of 
the countries to the South of us went to Europe 
instead of coming to the United States, and 
he sketched a polic}' bv which a diversion of 
this profitable trade could be made to our own 
country. 

Blaine was again a candidate for the Presi- 
dential nomination in 1880, when Garfield was 
named by a decided majority. He took the 
stump for Garfield, and on the election of that 



302 STATESMEN 

statesman was offered tlie post of Secretary of 
State, which he accepted. It is likely that 
Blaine's occupation of this high office had some 
influence upon the mind of Senator Conkling, 
who very soon developed a hostility toward 
the Garfield administration, which culminated 
finally in the resignation of the two New York 
Senators, Conkling and Piatt. Out of this most 
unfortunate episode grew a long and angry con- 
troversy which divided the Republican party 
into two factions. The bitterness of this dispute 
was intensihed by the failure of the New York 
Legislature to re-elect Messrs. Conkling and 
Piatt, for they had apparently expected to be re- 
turned to the Senate. In the midst of this bitter 
contention President Garheld was assassinated, 
while on his way to a brief vacation, three 
months after his inauguration. But during his 
brief service in the Cabinet, Secretary Blaine 
had defined the foreign policy to be pursued by 
the Garfield administration, which was as fol- 
lows : " First, to bring about peace and prevent 
future wars in North and vSouth America; and, 
secondl}^ to cultivate such friendly commercial 
relations w'ith all American countries as would 
lead to a large increase in the export trade of 
the United States. It was for the jnirpose of 
promoting peace on the Western Hemispliere 
that it was determined to in\'itc all ihe independ- 
ent governments of North and South America 
to meet in a peace conference at Washington on 
March 15, 1882. The project met witli cordial 
approval in South America, and had it been car- 



JAMES G. BLAINE 303 

ried out would have raised the standard of civ- 
ilization, and possibly by opening South Ameri- 
can markets to our manufactures would have 
wiped out $12,000,000 balance of trade which 
Spanish America brings against us every year." 
The death of Garfield apparently rendered 
necessary the reconstruction of the Cabinet, 
which resulted in Blaine's being succeeded by 
Mr. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, 
and only Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War, 
remained in the official family of President 
Arthur, who succeeded Garfield. But even the 
few months which Blaine spent in the Cabinet 
at this time were filled with useful activities. 
The Clayton-Buhver treaty, relating to Ameri- 
can interests on the Isthmus of Darien, was one 
of the important topics considered by Secretary 
Blaine, and a number of elaborate despatches 
were written by him concerning our relations 
with Mexico, British oppression in Ireland, and 
the union of the Central American States under 
one confederacy. Retiring from public life at 
the conclusion of his brief term of service in the 
Cabinet, Blaine removed to his home in Maine 
and addressed himself to the preparation of his 
historical work, " Twenty Years in Congress," 
the first volume of which appeared in April, 
1884. This work, which in some respects was 
modelled upon Benton's " Thirty Years in the 
United States Senate," covers a most important 
part of our history, extending from Lincoln to 
Garfield, with a cursory review of the events 
which led up to the American Rebellion. It is 



304 STATESMEN 

in fact a biography of the American people and 
a picture of their progress through the twenty 
years immediately after the death of Lincoln. 

Blaine was again a candidate for the Presiden- 
tial nomination before the Republican conven- 
tion which assembled in Chicago in 1884, and 
was nominated on the fourth ballot, having five 
hundred and forty-one votes, four hundred and 
seven being necessary for a choice. The anti- 
Blaine elements had centred upon President 
Arthur as their candidate, and it was apparent 
that the friends of Conkling, and others who had 
all along opposed Blaine's ambition, Avould not 
heartily support Blaine in the contest which was 
to follow. The result of the canvass was the elec- 
tion of Grover Cleveland, who had been nomi- 
nated by the Democrats. Various causes con- 
spired to weaken the cause of Blaine, one of 
them being the extraordinary episode known as 
the " Burchard business." In an address to 
Blaine at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, the 
Rev. Dr. Burchard spoke of the Democratic 
party as the party of " Rum, Romanism, and 
Rebellion," and Blaine's failure then and there 
to make some response signifying his disapproval 
of this statement undoubtedly influenced many 
votes against him in the canvass. It was said 
that Blaine had been called on unexpectedly, and 
while his mind was concentrated in an effort to 
frame something pertinent to say in reply to the 
address, he failed to notice the singular phrase 
employed by Dr. Burchard. The vote of the 
State of New York determined the issue by a 



JAMES G. BLAINE 305 

small pliiralit}'. Of the popular vote, Blaine re- 
ceived four million eight hundred and fifty-one 
thousand nine hundred and eighty-one, and 
Cleveland had four million eight hundred and 
seventy-four thousand nine hundred and eighty- 
six votes. The result was undoubtedly sorely 
disappointing to Blaine, who had in vain endured 
the weariness and fatigue of a long and exhaust- 
ing campaign. But he speedily rallied from his 
depression, and in an address which he made to 
his fellow-citizens at Augusta he treated the issues 
of the campaign with fresh vigor and without 
betraying the least annoyance at his defeat. 

Absence in Europe during a part of the next 
succeeding years prevented him from becoming 
positively identified with the efforts which were 
put forth to nominate him again in 1888. There 
were many contradictory reports received from 
him, and although when he was formally ap- 
proached and interviewed on the subject of his 
nomination he expressed himself as being out of 
the field, his tenacious followers insisted that he 
should be regarded as a candidate for the nomi- 
nation. However this may be, the outcome of 
the national convention that year was the nomi- 
nation of General Benjamin Harrison. Blaine 
returned to the United States and took an active 
part in the canvass, speaking in various portions 
of the countr}^ and lending his powerful support 
to the Republican nominations. 

On the accession of General Harrison to the 
Presidency, Blaine was again appointed Secre- 
tary of State, and he proceeded to carry out his 
20 



306 RTATESMEK 

South American-Central American policy with 
much vigor and doubtless with infinite satisfac- 
tion. As if he realized the shortness of the time 
now left to him, he undertook at once with amaz- 
ing vigor the execution of the plans which had 
been frustrated by the death of Garfield and his 
retiring from public life. Instead of a peace con- 
ference to meet at Washington, Blaine now pro- 
posed a Pan-American Congress, which really 
had the same object in view, although the scope 
of the policy to be considered was made much 
wider. The objects of the Pan-American Con- 
gress, as of^cially declared, were to adopt meas- 
ures that should tend to preserve and promote the 
prosperity of the several American States, the 
formation of a customs and trade union, the estab- 
lishment of regular and frequent communication 
between the ports of the several States in the 
compact, the establishment of a uniform system 
of customs dues, weights and measures, trade- 
marks, silver currency, and an agreement look- 
ing toward the arbitration of all questions and 
disputes by an international court. The princi- 
pal result of this congress was the adoption of 
a system of trade reciprocity with the South 
American and Central American States, which 
it is claimed has inured greatly to the benefit 
of the republic of the United States. 

It is likely that the calamities that now over- 
took Blaine not only depressed his spirits, which 
had always been elastic and animated, but hast- 
ened that gradual decay of his physical powers 
which eventually resulted in making his retire- 




' " 'SKSiiTgl,,,, 



Mr. Blaine's Washington Home, at 17 Madisnn Place, where he Died— Formerly 
the Seward Mansion. 



JAMES G. BLAINE 309 

ment from public life absolutely necessary. On 
January 15, 1890, his oldest son, Walker Blaine, 
who had been his main-stay and support in the 
cares of State, died suddenly. Within a month 
later his oldest daughter, Alice, also died ; and 
another son, Emmons Blaine, died in 1892. A 
few weeks after the death of his daughter, 
Blaine had an attack of paralysis and was taken 
to his home, and during the summer of 1891 was 
unable to attend to the affairs of the State De- 
partment. During his absence many questions 
of great importance arose and were disposed of 
by President Harrison, who was obliged to as- 
sume the duties of Secretary of State to a great 
degree during the prostration of the Secretary. 

As if pursued by adversity relentlessly, and in 
spite of all efforts to escape, his name was pre- 
sented at the Republican convention of 1892 by 
ill-advised friends. It is likely that the long suc- 
cessful statesmen, now enfeebled by disease and 
made irritable and somewhat vacillating by the 
misfortunes which had so persistently followed 
him, was not sufficiently able to control his ar- 
dent admirers in the national convention. At any 
rate, although he had repeatedly expressed his 
determination not to permit his name again to be 
used as a Presidential candidate, his adherents 
insisted in pressing it, and to their inexpressible 
chagrin and the mortification of all sincere 
admirers of Secretary Blaine, he was defeated. 
Harrison was nominated by a very handsome 
majority. During the hurly-burly which was 
caused by the attempt to force Blaine into the 



310 STATESMEJV 

convention, apparentl}' against his will, he per- 
emptorily resigned his post as Secretary of State 
and left Washington for his summer home in 
Maine. This step, while it could not be thor- 
oughly understood by politicians and public men, 
was generally regarded by the people at large as 
a sign of disagreement between the President 
and the Secretary of State. But whatever were 
the interior facts of this curious complication, it 
is certain that, later on, the reconciliation of 
these two men was complete. Blaine returned 
to Washington after the election of Grover 
Cleveland in 1892, but was in feeble condition, 
unable to see any of the devoted friends who 
besieged his house, imploring information as to 
his real condition. Contradictory reports of his 
health were circulated, but he grew weaker day 
by day, and died quietly, January 27, 1893. 

The personality of James G. Blaine was the 
most conspicuous and remarkable of any in 
American public life during the period immedi- 
ately succeeding the close of the Rebellion and 
ending with his own career. His alluring quali- 
ties were man v. In person he was command- 
ing; his figure was strikinglv handsome and was 
sure to attract attention an v where. His manner 
was winning and affable, and he impressed those 
with whom he came in contact as possessing a 
kindly individual interest and sympathy. His 
wonderful memor}' for faces and remote personal 
incidents aided him materially in maintaining 
this pleasing character. He doubtless studied to 
commend himself to those whose esteem he de- 



JAMES G. BLAINE 311 

sired to win. Illness and grief impaired these 
qualities at the last; but he will always be re- 
membered by the hosts who admired him as 
" the magnetic man from Maine." 

In debate he was aggressive, dashing, and au- 
dacious. He was quick to discern the weak 
points in the harness of an adversary, and by 
his incessant and sharp attacks he sometimes 
worried an antagonist to the verge of despera- 
tion. Preserving his own good temper and 
coolness, he would contrive to goad an adver- 
sary with repeated flights of barbed arrows of 
rhetoric which were exasperating to the last de- 
gree. Yet withal he was a generous gladiator 
and he never took a mean advantage of an oppo- 
nent, but readily conceded every point that was 
fairly made against himself. His studied ora- 
tions, of which there are several on record, were 
calm, lofty in tone, and worthy of a high place 
in American literature. His memorial address, 
pronounced in the national Capitol by invita- 
tion of Congress, on the death of Garfield, while 
it is not free from small defects, may be regarded 
as a fair example of Blaine's more elaborate form 
of oratory. 

In conversation he was brilliant and versatile, 
his range of reading and observation being very 
wide, and his mind concerning itself with an 
almost infinite variety of topics. His habit of 
thought was rapid and his conclusions usually 
intuitive and generally correct. In public speak- 
ing his voice was ringing, and it had a certain 
penetrative quality that has been called " me- 



312 STATESMEN 

tallic." His orator}- was argumentative and illus- 
trative, rather than eloquent and sentimental ; 
and his propositions were always put forth with 
a lucidity and homeliness of application that 
gave to Lincoln's speeches their chief charm. 

He was a tremendous worker, and although 
he found it necessary, especially in his later 
years, to employ a secretary and amanuensis, he 
never dictated any part of his voluminous work 
except that which was purely narrative. It was 
this close application to study and writing 
which, added to the severe mental strain of an 
arduous and often stormy life, shortened the 
number of his days and hastened the collapse 
that finally overtook him while he was yet only 
in the sixty-third vear of his age, thus closing 
the career of the most brilliant statesman of his 
ofeneration. 




James A. Garfield. 



XI. 

JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

In his memorial oration on Garfield, Blaine 
quoted the words in which Webster described 
the place where the elder members of the Web- 
ster [amily were born — " a log- cabin raised 
amid the snow-drifts of New Hampshire." The 
orator then said : " With requisite change of 
scene, the same words would aptly portray the 
early days of Garfield. The poverty of the 
frontier, where all are engaged in a common 
struggle, and where a common sympathy and 
hearty co-operation lighten the burdens of each, 
is a very different poverty — different in kind, 
different in influence and effect — from that con- 
scious and humiliating indigence which is every 
day forced to contrast itself with neighboring 
wealth on which it feels a sense of grinding de- 
pendence. The poverty of the frontier is indeed 
no poverty ; it is but the beginning of wealth, 
and has the boundless possibilities of the future 
always opening before it." 

When Garfield was elected United States 
Senator from Ohio, in January, 1880, President 
Hinsdale, of Hiram College, Ohio, made an ad- 
dress to the students of the institution appro- 
priate to the occasion when so much honor had 



314 STATESMEN 

been conferred upon one who, as he said, " had 
been bell-ringer and president" of that college. 
In the course of his remarks President Hins- 
dale said : " General Garfield once rang the 
school-bell when a student here. That did not 
make him the man he is. Convince me that it 
did and I will hang up a bell in every tree in the 
campus and set you all to ringing, Thomas 
Corwin when a boy drove a wagon, and became 
the head of the Treasury ; Thomas Ewing boiled 
salt, and became a Senator ; Henry Clay rode a 
horse to the mill from the Slashes, and he be- 
came the Great Commoner of the West. But it 
was not the wagon, nor the salt, nor the horse that 
made these men great. These are interesting 
facts in the lives of these illustrious men. They 
show that in our country it has been and still is 
possible for young men of ability, energy, and 
determined purpose to rise above lowly condi- 
tions and win places of usefulness and honor. 
Poverty may be a good school ; straitened cir- 
cumstances may develop power and character ; 
but the principal conditions for success are in 
the man and not in his surroundings." 

The simple fact is that American history, even 
in recent years, is full of examples of personal 
icissitudes that are dramatic in their sharp con- 
trasts, and Garfield's career was so compact with 
these that after he had passed through the ear- 
lier days of his training he rapidly ascended 
through several important successive stages. 
Within six months he was successively president 
of a college, State Senator of Ohio, a major-gen- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 315 

eral of the Army of the United States, and Rep- 
resentative to the national Congress. As his eulo- 
gist has said, " a combination of honors so varied, 
so elevated, within a period so brief, and to a 
man so young, is without precedent or parallel 
in the history of the country." Garfield's mother 
was left a widow while he was yet an infant. 
She was a woman of unusual energy, faith, and 
courage. She declared that her children should 
not be separated, and she kept them at home 
together until they were able to take care of them- 
selves. As President Hinsdale, in the address 
above quoted, says of young Garfield, his life did 
not materially differ from the lives of his neigh- 
bors' boys. "He chopped wood, and so did 
they ; he hoed, and so did they ; he carried but- 
ter to the store in a little pail, and so did they. 
Other families that had not lost their heads nat- 
urally shot ahead of the Garfields in property, 
but such differences counted for far less then 
than they do now." While yet a lad, the desire 
of the youngster to earn a little money led him 
to become a boatman on the Ohio Canal, which 
passed within a short distance of the Garfield 
farm. He discharged the humble duties of his 
place with so much fidelity and diligence that he 
attracted the attention of his superiors and was 
promoted to the loftier position of steersman of 
a barge. 

After about eighteen months of this sort of 
labor, laying by as much as he could of his small 
earnings, he took a step forward and shipped as 
sailor on one of the schooners plying on Lake 



316 STATESMEN 

Erie. Illness compelled him to relinquish this 
mode of life, and he returned home and confided 
to his mother his ambitious plans for the future. 
He had already acquired an elementar3' knowl- 
edge of common branches of education, and now 
resolved to build a loftier structure for him- 
self. With the small savings that were within 
his reach, and by his mother's assistance, he be- 
gan a course of study at an obscure institution in 
a small countr}^ village not far from Orange, O. 

w '•H\in ill ' 1 ' " , 







Garfield s B.>yhood Home. 

Young Garfield and his room-mate, too poor to 
pa}' their board in the village, rented a roc^m in an 
old frame building not far from the academy and 
there did their own cooking and house-keeping 
in the most primitive way while they imbibed 
elements of knowledge at the Pierian spring 
which gushed forth in the Geauga Academy. 
But the future President had a stout heart and a 
determined will, and he applied himself with 
honest and faithful toil to the task which he had 
set before him. He found work among the car- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 317 

penters of the village, and spent his mornings, 
evenings, and Saturdays in the shops, where will- 
ing hands were held out to give the boy a lift 
along his rugged road. During the winter he 
taught a district school, and thus added a little to 
his income. And so for several years, teaching 
in the winter, working at the carpenter's bench at 
odd times, and attending the academy during the 
fall and spring terms, he was able to secure the 
training necessary for a higher collegiate course. 
He was a tall, muscular, fair-haired country lad, 
browned by wind and exposure, sound in every 
fibre of his body, a strong athlete, a good student, 
and a great favorite with his associates. 

In the fall of 1854 Garheld was admitted to the 
junior class of Williams College, Williamstown, 
Mass., his previous studies having been sufficient- 
ly thorough to enable him to skip the fresh- 
man and sophomore courses. It is a matter of 
record that the polished young students among 
whom he was now thrown were disposed to look 
somewhat contemptuously on the rough Ohio 
carpenter and farmer's boy who had ventured 
into their companv. Rude remarks and ruder 
treatment he bore with patience, high-spirited 
though he was ; and without regarding the 
slights and taunts that were occasionally tossed 
at him, he devoted himself with energy to his 
studies, and very speedily acquired a reputation 
for scholarship far above that of any of his fellow- 
students. When he graduated, in 1856, he car- 
ried off the honors of his class in metaphysics, a 
distinction of great merit. Three years later (in 



318 STATESMEN 

1859) Garfield was nominated for State Senator 
by the Anti-Slavery party of Portage and Summit 
Counties, O., and was elected by a handsome 
majorit}^ He had previously taken part in the 
political campaigns of the region and was already 
pretty well known as a stump-speaker. He had 
meanwhile been chosen president of the Hiram 
Eclectic Institute, in Portage County, and had 
won additional fame for the little institution of 
which the people of Northern Ohio were already 
very proud. 

When the slave-holding States of the South 
began to secede from the Union during the win- 
ter of 1 860-1, Garfield's patriotism was fired to 
fervent heat, and he took every occasion to speak 
eloquently and vigorously in favor of a prompt 
exercise of the right of the General Government 
to coerce the so-called seceded States. The 
Union, he argued, was meant to be perpetual, 
and secession was to be firmly and finally blocked 
by the power of the Federal Government. 
' Garfield was early in the field when the war 
..began, and at the head of a regiment of brave 
Ohio soldiers he was assigned to duty as an in- 
dependent force in Eastern Kentucky. His first 
task was to check the advance of General Hum- 
phrey Marshall, who was marching down the Big 
Sandy River with the intention of co-operating 
with other rebel forces in Kentucky and precipi- 
tating the State into secession. The young col- 
lege president was entirely unversed in the art 
of war, but, as he afterward expressed himself, 
knew just enough of military science to measure 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 



319 



the extent of his ignorance. With a handful of 
men he was obliged to march in the rough 
winter weather of 1861 into a strange country, 
among a hostile population, to confront a largely 
superior force under the command of a gradu- 
ate of West Point who had already seen ser- 
vice. Like many another patriotic civilian un- 




The Garfield Monument at Washington. 

acquainted with military strategy and tactics, 
Garfield plunged into the fight and imparted to 
his raw and undisciplined troops a good measure 
of his own personal courage. He rallied his 
little column, and to the consternation and as- 
tonishment of the rebel force opp(Jsed to him, 
he checked their advance, routed their column, 
and swept from an important territory the rising 



320 STATESMEN 

tide of the rebellion. With less than two thou- 
sand men, and without cannon, he had met an 
army of five thousand and had driven Marshall's 
forces from point to point and finally had turned 
the stream of military invasion. His subsequent 
career in the army, which was not a long one, 
was brilliant, effective, and worthy of the high 
praise which he received from his superiors. 
In 1863 he was assigned to the responsible post 
of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, at the 
head of the Army of the Cumberland. He very 
speedily manifested his hostility to slavery, and 
incurred the ill-will of S(nne of his associates 
who were yet disposed to regard American 
slavery as a sacred thing. On one occasion a 
fugitive slave took refuge in the Union ranks, 
and the division commander wrote a mandatory 
order to General Garfield to hunt out the fugi- 
tive and deliver him to the custody of his owner. 
Garfield endorsed on the order, with great de- 
liberation, the following extraordinary sentence : 
" I respectfully but positively decline to allow 
my command to search for or deliver up any fu- 
gitive slaves. I conceive that they are here for 
quite another purpose. The command is open 
and no obstacles will be placed in the way of 
search." That fugitive slave was not returned. 
While Garfield was fighting in the field, new 
and unexpected honors fell to his lot. The en- 
ergy and tact with which he had allayed the 
political dissensions that had arisen in the Army 
of the Cumberland, his military prowess, and 
his skill in discipline were rewarded successively 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 32 L 

by commissions as brigadier-general and major- 
general, his last promoti(Mi being given him for 
gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of 
Chickamauga. When the Army of the Cumber- 
land was reorganized under the command of 
General Thomas, Garheld was offered one of its 
divisions; but meanwhile he had been chosen a 
Representative in Congress from his own dis- 
trict in Ohio, and after seeking the advice of 
President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, he de- 
cided to accept the post of Congressman, and 
resigned his commission of major-general De- 
cember 5, 1863, and took his seat in the House 
of Representatives two days later. He had just 
completed the thirty-second year of his age. 

In the trying career of a member of the 
House of Representatives Garfield showed him- 
self a good parliamentary orator and an admi- 
rable debater. He differed from most parliamen- 
tary leaders in that a certain bonhomie natural 
to this vigorous young Westerner was mingled 
with scholarly refinement and polish not usual in 
the lower House of Congress. He spoke so 
readily that he was frequently importuned by 
his fellow-members to aid them in measures 
which they brought before the House, and per- 
haps spoke too often for his own fame. One 
writer says : " His superior knowledge used to 
offend some of his less learned colleagues. At 
first they thought him bookish and pedantic, 
until they found how useful was his store of 
knowledge, and how pertinent to the business in 
hand were the drafts he made upon it." It must 
21 



332 STATESMEN 

be admitted that Garfield's classic and literar)' 
allusions seemed somewhat out of place to those 
who listened to the debates from the gallery of 
the House and heard him quote ancients and 
moderns, to the infinite weariness of many of his 
associates, who never heard of Juvenal, and to 
whom Wordsworth and Coleridge were stran- 
gers. Blaine, in his eulogy, says of Garfield : 
" He perhaps more nearly resembles Mr. Seward 
in his supreme faith in the all-conquering power 
of a principle ; he had the love of learning and 
the patient industry of investigation, to whicli 
John Ouincy Adams owed his prominence and 
the Presidency ; he had some of those ponderous 
elements of mind wdiich distinguished Mr. Web- 
ster, and which indeed in all our public life have 
left the great Massachusetts Senator without an 
intellectual peer." 

On the various complicated and knotty ques- 
tions that grew^ out of the process of reconstruc- 
tion at the end of the civil war, Gaffield always 
took an advanced and radical position. He was 
one of the devoted band that stood by Senator 
Wade, of Ohio, in his somewhat brutal course as 
member of the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War. Garfield was a moderate protectionist, 
and while he supported measures for the pro- 
tection of American industries, habitually coun- 
selled measures less severe than some of the more 
ultra protectionists in the House of Representa- 
tives advocated with much strenuousness. On 
the tariff bill of 1870 he said: "After studying 
the whole subject as carefully as I am able, I am 



324 



STATESMEN 



firmly of the opinion that the wisest thing that 
the protectionists in this House can do is to 
unite in a moderate reduction of duties on im- 
ported articles. He is not a faithful Representa- 
tive who merely votes for the highest rate pro- 
posed, in order to show on the record that he 




General Gaifield in 1863. 



voted for the highest figure and therefore is a 
sound protectionist. He is the wisest man who 
sees the tides and currents of public opinion and 
uses his best efforts to protect the industry of 
the people against sudden collapses and sudden 
changes. . . . The great want of industry is 
a stable policy, and it is a significant comment 
on the character of our Ico-islation that Con- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 325 

gress has become a terror to the business men 
of the country." 

In July, 1864, Senator Wade, of Ohio, and 
Representative Henry Winter Davis, of Mary- 
land, united in the publication of a document, 
afterward famous as the Wade-Davis manifesto. 
It was directed against the reconstruction policy 
of President Lincoln, as outlined in his procla- 
mation of that month and year. A reconstruc- 
tion bill, which had been supported by Wade 
and Davis and their allies, had passed through 
both Houses of Congress, but it failed to receive 
the signature of the President in the closing 
hours of Congress, which adjourned July 4, 1864. 
It was reported that the Wade -Davis mani- 
festo against President Lincoln had been writ- 
ten by Garheld. The publication created the 
most intense excitement throughout the West, 
and was vehemently denounced by the people 
of the Western Reserve, where Garfield had his 
home. It was regarded as an unkind and unjust 
attack upon the beloved Lincoln, and was re- 
sented bv sturdy Republicans throughout the 
country. Just at this time the convention to 
nominate a candidate for Congress in Garfield's 
district assembled. Garfield was summoned by 
a committee of the convention to appear before 
that bodv and explain his standing in regard to 
the Wade-Davis manifesto. He had already 
denied that he was the author of the letter, but 
he appeared before the convention and made a 
speech which he naturally supposed would end 
his political career then and there. He denied 



326 STATESMEN 

that he had written the Wade-Davis letter, but 
he approved the document, defended the motives 
of its authors, and asserted his own right to in- 
dependence of thought and action, and told the 
delegates in the convention that if they did not 
want a free agent as their Representative, they 
might better look elsewhere, for he could serve 
them no longer. So saying, he strode out of the 
convention hall ; but before he could leave the 
building a burst of applause, which he imagined 
was the signal of his defeat, broke upon his ears. 
It was the signal of his nomination by acclama- 
tion. 

Garfield, as we have said, was elected to the 
Senate in January, 1880, succeeding Allen G. 
Thurman, whose term of ofifice expired March 3, 
1 88 1. But before he could qualify he was nom- 
inated for President of the United States in the 
summer of 1880 by the Republicans in their con- 
vention at Chicago. The nomination of Garfield 
was bitterly opposed by the men who were asso- 
ciated with Roscoe Conkling in the support of 
General Grant, whose name was pressed upon 
the convention as a candidate for a third term. 
After a long and somewhat heated contest, Gar- 
field was nominated on the thirtv-sixth ballot. 
The Conkling element had been defeated by this 
choice, and in order to conciliate the associates 
of the Senator from New York, Chester A. 
Arthur was named as candidate ior Vice-Presi- 
dent. This selection, however, was made with- 
out any reference to the personal wishes of Sen. 
ator Conkling, and it was asserted that he took 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 327 

no part in the convention after the nomination of 
Garfield. 

The Presidential election of that year resulted 
in the choice of Garfield by a majority of fifty- 
nine electoral votes. In the popular vote Gar- 
field had 4437,345 ; General Hancock, Democrat, 
had 4,435,015 ; and Weaver, Greenback, 305,931. 
His inaugural address was a straightforward, 
business-like, and eminently practical oration. It 
was read slowly and effectively and made an ex- 
cellent impression throughout the country. His 
Cabinet was as follows : Secretary of State, 
James G. Blaine ; Secretary of the Treasury, 
William Windom ; Secretary of War, Robert T. 
Lincoln ; Secretary of the Navy, William H. 
Hunt; Secretary of the Interior, S. J. Kirkwood ; 
Attorney General, Wayne McVeagh ; Postmas- 
ter General, Thomas L. James. 

As soon as the purposes of General Garfield 
could be unfolded, they were shown to be fair, 
just, and statesman-like. He gave promises of 
being a safe, conservative, and patriotic Presi- 
dent, and his talents as an administrative officer 
and a legislator were likely to acquire for him 
an honorable record and enduring fame. But he 
was very soon called upon to face a serious par- 
tisan contest which appeared in the Republican 
party. A quarrel arose over the appointments 
to Federal office in the State of New York. This 
unhappy disagreement finally culminated in the 
resignation of Senators Conkling and Piatt, of 
that State, and their appeal to the Legislature 
to approve their acts by re-electing them. Presi- 



328 



.ST A TESMEN 




J 



\ 







1^ ''. Silv^-.&v-^^*^- 








The Garfield Monument at Cleveland. O 



dent Garfield, however, apparently having the 
support of the great mass of the people, pursued 
the course which he liad marked out for himself 
without reference to the angry protests of the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 329 

two Senators. He believed that the true pre- 
rogatives of the executive office were involved 
in the issue which had been raised against him, 
and that he would be unfaithful to his obliga- 
tions if he failed to maintain with all their vigor 
the constitutional rights and dignities of his 
great office. In the eulogy so often quoted, 
Blaine said : " More than this need not be said ; 
less than this could not be said. Justice to the 
dead, the highest obligation that devolves upon 
the living, demands the declaration that in all 
the bearings of the subject, actual or possible, 
the President was content in his mind, justi- 
fied in his conscience, immovable in his con- 
clusions." The sum and substance of this mis- 
erable business was that the two New York 
Senators claimed the right to defeat any nom- 
ination to office in their State made by the 
President and unacceptable to themselves. Out 
of this bitter contention grew a schism in the 
party which was long and deep. Washington 
was confused with rumors of even more serious 
difficulties between the President and political 
enemies in his owm party. In the midst of this 
clamor, July 2, 1881, as President Garfield, ac- 
companied by Secretary Blaine, was leaving 
Washington for a brief holiday, he was mur- 
derously fired upon by one Guitcau, a person 
of then unknown antecedents, who had haunted 
the corridors of the White House and other 
public places for weeks past. The motive of 
his crime has never been fully understood, but 
when arrested he exclaimed, " 1 did it, and want 



330 STATESMEN 

to be arrested. 1 am a Stalwart, and Arthur is 
President now." 

The excitement throughout the country, and 
we may say throughout the civilized world, 
which followed this dreadful deed can be likened 
only to the same state of feeling which prevailed 
when Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. For a 
time it seemed as if the shock to the public sen- 
sibilities had arrested every other thought save 
that which centred in Washington, where the 
President was believed to be slowlv dying. But 
weeks of suspense passed, and the ii"on constitu- 
tion of the chief magistrate fought bravely for 
his survival. That summer will long be remem- 
bered by the American people as one of deep 
gloom, sorrow, and anxiety. The weather was 
dry, hot, and oppressive, and on September 6th 
the dying President was can-ied to the sea-shore 
at Elberon, N. J., where, after a few more days of 
failing strength and intense suffering, he passed 
aw^ay. He died on the 19th of September, and 
was immediately succeeded by Vice-President 
Chester A. Arthur. A great wave of grief 
swept over the land, and amid the lamentations 
of the people the body of Garfield was carried 
by a funeral train back to his native Ohio, where 
it w^as laid to rest in a magnificent mausoleum, 
built in the suburbs of Cleveland. 

Garfield's person was impressive and manly ; 
his stature was six feet ; he was broad-shouldered, 
compactly built, and was the personification of 
physical strength and health. He had an un- 
usually large head, a dome-like forehead, light 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 331 

brown hair and fnll beard, large light-blue eyes, 
prominent nose, and ruddy complexion. He 
was plain in his dress, usually wore a dark slouch 
hat, and presented the appearance of a comfort- 
able and well-to-do Western farmer or merchant, 
rather than the scholar and statesman that he was. 

As we have indicated, his training was thor- 
ough, and to his indomitable industry rather 
than to any remarkable genius we must attrib- 
ute his achievements in public life — civil and 
military. By nature he was of an affectionate 
disposition, tenaciously devoted to his friends 
and almost feminine in his attachments to those 
who won his confidence and affection. With cer- 
tain limitations, he was qualified to hold and ad- 
minister the highest office in the gift of the 
American people, and had he lived, doubtless 
would have achieved for himself still greater 
fame than that which his untimely taking-off has 
possibly attached to a career so tragically ended. 

The last scene of all, his slow passage from 
this life to the life beyond, by the borders of the 
ocean at Elberon, has never been more elo- 
quently touched upon than in the closing words 
of Blaine's memorial oration : " As the end drew 
near, his early craving for the sea returned. 
The stately mansion of power had been to him 
the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to 
be taken from its prison walls ; from its oppres- 
sive, stifling air ; from its homelessness and its 
hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a 
great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed- 
for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God 



332 STATESMEN 

should will, within sight of its heaving billows, 
within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, 
fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, 
he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's chang- 
ing waters ; on its fair sails whitening in the 
morning light ; on its restless waves rolling shore- 
ward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; 
on the red clouds of evening arching low to the 
horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway of 
the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read 
a mystic meaning which only the rapt and part- 
ing soul may know. Let us believe that in the 
silence of the receding world he heard the great 
waves breaking on a further shore and felt al- 
ready upon his wasted brow the breath of the 
eternal morning." 




Piesident Grover Cleveland. 



XII. 
GROVER CLEVELAND. 

We have now taken a brief survey of a goodly 
company of American statesmen with a view to 
determine, so far as possible, their assignment to 
positions in the history of their country, and to dis- 
cover lessons in their careers for the incitement of 
others to persevere to attempts at achievement. 
These all have passed over to "the silent major- 
ity," and the places which they will each occupy 
will be fixed as time rolls on. As inflexible as the 
laws of life, as unsparing as death, is the verdict 
of posterity which will assign to each his ulti- 
mate station in the temple of fame. The process 
of determination began as soon as each man 
passed over into the pale realms of shade. The 
procession is still moving onward. 

Grover Cleveland is nearest to us of these 
worthies because he, the twelfth on the list, is 
still in the land of the living. When the men of 
this time are removed beyond the confusion of 
immediate events, other generations will see the 
lost leaders with a clearer vision. Their charac- 
ters will have taken their places in a true perspec- 
tive. We can only guess at a venture what will 
be the dictum of that far-away jury. Cleveland, 
born in an obscure New Jersey village, chris- 



334 STATESiVEN 

tenccl Stephen Grover Cleveland, the son of a 
rural clergyman, gave no more promise ot liit- 
urc greatness than any of his predecessors in 
the long line of public men whose characteristics 
we have been considering. Like others of that 
company, young Cleveland appeared to take to 
the village store as affording one of the means 
of gaining a living that was readiest to his hand. 
Like them, too, he drifted about at first somewhat 
aimlessly, and it was not until 1855, when he was 
past eighteen years of age, that he really made 
a beginning in the career that was to land him 
finally in the White House. He studied law in 
Buffalo, N. Y., after taking a turn in the w^ork of 
assisting in compiling " a short-horn herd-book." 
Vigorous in health, ambitious, manly, and full of 
courage, he showed himself in the Buffalo law 
office to be a youth of intelligence and decision 
of character. He was admitted to the Bar in 
1859, but he remained four more 3^ears with the 
law firm where he imbibed the elements of his 
profession, and thus had eight good years of 
legal training. As office boy, student, and em- 
bryo barrister, he was thoroughly rooted and 
grounded in the theory and practice of law. 

As a young practitioner at the bar he made 
himself so favorably known to the people of Erie 
County that his appointment as District Attorney 
in 1863 was taken as a fit and proper assignment 
to duty. So able did he fill the position to wdiich 
he had been appointed that he was nominated by 
his party, the Democrats, for District Attorne}' 
in 1865, but was defeated by Mr. L. K. Bass, 



O ROVER OLEVELAjS'D 335 

with whom, later on, he was associated in a iirm 
of lawyers. At the age of thirty-three, in 1870, 
he was elected Sheriff of Erie Comity, an office 
which he discharged with fairness and ability. 
Another step in advance was taken in 1881 when 
he was elected Mayor of the city of Buffalo by 
a majority of thirty-five hundred. Buffalo was 
then a Republican city, but local affairs had got 
into such a condition that the election of a mayor 
on a non-partisan ticket had become a necessity, 
and Cleveland, by his honest devotion to duty, 
his strict integrity and public spirit, had so com- 
mended himself to the people that he was chosen 
their candidate without regard to party lines. 

The local government of Buffalo had drifted 
into a condition of slovenliness and carelessness 
which needed a strong hand to bring order out 
of chaos and to restore public affairs to a basis of 
economy and frugality. The lax way of doing 
things which had for years characterized the 
administration of public affairs had not only 
aroused the indignation and dissatisfaction of 
the people, but had attracted the attention of 
men who, like Cleveland, were determined that 
a better government was necessary to rescue 
the municipality from extravagance and corrup- 
tion. He became at once so famous for his veto 
messages sent to the Common Council that he 
was generally known as the "Veto Mayor." 
These messages are interesting as a study of 
municipal government. They touch problems 
of daily occurrence and evince on the part of 
their author a determination to do good service 



336 ST A TEHMEN 

in the cause of honest government. One can 
imagine the dismay of the happy-go-lucky pol- 
iticians and time-servers who were confronted 
occasionally by a breezy message which would 
contain some such sentence as this : " I cannot 
rid myself of the idea that this city government 
in its relation to the tax-payers is a business 
establishment, and that it is put in our hands to 
be conducted on business principles." Or this : 
" The extreme tenderness and consideration for 
those who desire to contract with the city, and 
the touching and paternal solicitude lest they 
should be improvidently led into a bad bargain, 
is, I am sure, an exception to general business 
rules, and seems to have no place in this selfish, 
sordid world, except as found in the administra- 
tion of municipal affairs." 

The administration of Mayor Cleveland, so to- 
tall}' different from that of any officer who had 
preceded him, and so unlike that of some other 
municipal officers throughout the country, at- 
tracted the attention of the people of New York 
to his courage and his fidelity to public trusts. 
Accordingly in 1882 he was nominated by the 
Democratic party their candidate for Governor 
in opposition to Charles J. Folger, then Secretary 
of the United States Treasur}-, who had been 
nominated for the same office by the Republicans 
of the State. Mr. Folger had been nominated at 
the instance, it was alleged, of the national ad- 
ministration, and although he was an honest, able, 
and patriotic gentleman, the voters of the State 
resented this alleo-ed interference with their in- 



a ROVER CLEVELAND 337 

dependence. It was claimed, and not without 
reason, that the Federal administration had 
forced Folger upon the party, with a serene in- 
difference to all other considerations than those 
of expediency and in the tranquil expectation 
that his nomination would be followed by an 
election. During this canvass the so-called In- 
dependents played a conspicuous part, and while 
they were active in their advocacy of the merits 
of Cleveland, the rank and file and many of the 
leaders of the Republican party sulked in their 
tents and stayed away from the polls. The re- 
sult was the election of Cleveland by an over- 
whelming majority. Cleveland received a plu- 
rality of 192,854 over Folger, and a majority over 
all candidates of 151,742. 

He went into office on January i. 1883, and his 
inaugural address was apparently modelled on 
the business-like and unpretentious message of 
one of his predecessors in office, Governor Til- 
den. He paid marked attention to the economi- 
cal questions which concerned the affairs of the 
State, and manifested a determination to root out 
ancient abuses and correct extravagance and 
recklessness of expenditure wherever these could 
be found. His administration was characterized 
by just such reforms as might have been expected 
after such a message. He vetoed bills that were 
designed, as he thought, to block the progress of 
economic reforms, and the State administration 
was really an expansion of the principles that had 
controlled his official action while he was INIavt^r 
of the city of Buffalo. 



^^ 



V . OH 







GROVE R CLEVELAND 339 

The portentous majority with which he had 
been elected Governor, and the record which he 
made in that office by his courage and severe 
simplicity of administration, gave him great 
vogue throughout the country, and his nomina- 
tion by the Democratic National Convention in 
July, 1884, seemed to follow as a matter of 
course. Out of eight hundred and twenty votes 
he received on the first ballot six hundred and 
eighty-three, a two-thirds vote being necessary 
for a nomination. In the letter he wrote accept- 
ing the nomination for the Presidency he re- 
peated and expanded the views he had so often 
enforced while in the office of Mayor and Gov- 
ernor. James G. Blaine was the nominee of the 
Republican National Convention, and the result 
of the election in November of that year gave 
Cleveland a majority of thirty-seven electoral 
votes. In a total popular vote of 10,067,610, 
Cleveland had 4,874,986, and Blaine had 4,85 1,981. 
New York was the pivotal State and was carried 
for Cleveland by a small plurality. Its thirty-six 
electoral votes, however, decided the contest in 
his favor. 

His Cabinet officers were as follows : Secre- 
tary of State, Thomas F. Bayard ; Secretary of 
the Treasury, Daniel Manning : Secretary of 
War, William C. Endicott ; Secretary of the 
Navy, William C. Whitney ; Postmaster-General, 
William F. Vilas; Attorney-General, Augustus 
IT. Garland; Secretary of the Interior, L. O. C. 
Lamar. 

Generally speaking, it nui}- be said that Cleve- 



340 STATESMEN 

land's administration of the National Govern- 
ment was modelled on the same general princi- 
ples which had distinguished his course in the 
minor executive offices which he had filled. His 
immediate following was largely made up of 
Independents who were pledged to civil-service 
reform, and Cleveland entered the White House 
with renewed expressions of loyalty to this 
movement. It has been forcibly claimed on the 
part of his friends who are also advocates of 
civil-service reform that any deflections from the 
path which they had marked out for him are to 
be charged to the tremendous pressure exerted 
upon him in his high office by the politicians, with- 
out whose aid he possibly could not have reached 
the Presidential chair. The sincerity of his pro- 
fessions and the honesty of his intention to carry 
out the principles of civil-service reform have 
been conceded even by those who are not polit- 
ical friends and who possibly have not expected 
that the party which elected him can ever be in- 
duced to surrender the ancient doctrine, " To 
the victors belong the spoils." 

During his first administration he came in 
conflict with many influential members of his 
party who insisted that the Republican office- 
holders should be removed indiscriminately and 
their places filled with Democrats of undoubted 
party lovalty- Among other important events 
which marked his administration was the naval 
expedition for the protection of American inter- 
ests in Aspinwall when that city was burned by 
the revolutionists in 1885. The encroachment 



GROVER CLEVELAND 341 

of cattle companies and ranchmen upon certain 
partly vacated lands belonging to the Indian 
Territory formed another vexatious and compli- 
cated problem which was solved by the deter- 
mined action of the President, who resisted the 
pleadings of the squatters and ordered their im- 
mediate vacation of the lands which they were 
holding without lawful title. During the same 
term a discussion arose between himself and the 
Senate in regard to the confirmation of per- 
sons nominated to places of emolument and trust. 
The Senate demanded the production of papers 
on which suspensions and removals had been 
ordered. The President took the ground that 
these were not public but private documents, 
and should not be placed on the files of the Sen- 
ate. After a somewhat acrimonious discussion, 
the Senate virtually receded from its position and 
most of the persons nominated were confirmed 
without more ado. An attack upon the Chi- 
nese at Ruck Springs, Wyo., was another of the 
unfortunate complications which attended Pi-esi- 
dent Cleveland's administration, and the Presi- 
dent, somewhat at variance with the precon- 
ceived notions of his party, took the view that the 
United States, while not bound by international 
law to pay for loss of life or property by China- 
men in the United States, should pay an indem- 
nity to the sufferers and their families. This 
was voted by Congress. When further anti- 
Chinese disturbances occurred in Oregon and 
other far Western States, he ordered out the 
military and expressed his determination to pro- 



342 



STATESMEN 



tect the Chinese at all hazards, so far as the 
power of the government should permit. 

" The Veto Mayor " of Buffalo in the Presidency 
exercised his power to check abuses and extrav- 
agant expenditures with the same decision that 
had previously characterized his administration. 
During the first session of the Congress which 
met next after his inauguration he vetoed one 




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Gray Gables, Mr. Cleveland's SumrYier Home at Buzzard's Bay, 

hundred and fifteen of the nine hundred and 
eighty-seven bills that had passed both Houses 
and were laid before him. Of these one hundred 
and two were private pension bills, and others 
were for the erection of ])ublic buildings and 
for other purposes requiring an out hi \' of pub- 
lic nioncv. A river anfl harboi" im[)r()\ement 
bill, apj)ropria1ing a vast sum ol monew was se- 
verely criticised by the P]-esident, but in conse- 
quence of its Noluminousncss and the necessity 



a ROVER CLEVELAND 343 

of some of Lhc appropriations included therein 
was not vetoed. 

In 1 888 he w^as for a second time nominated 
by his party a candidate for the Presidency 
against General Harrison, the Republican nom- 
inee. There were several candidates in the 
field, Fisk being the nominee of the Prohibition- 
ists and Streetor of the Union Labor organiza- 
tion. In a total electoral vote of 401, Harrison 
had 233, and was elected, Cleveland having 168. 
After his defeat as a candidate for re-election 
Cleveland took up his residence in the city of 
New York, where he became engaged in the 
practice of his profession and continued his 
successes as a counsellor and attorney. He 
took very little part in politics during the four 
intervening years, and by his strict attention 
to his private business so commended himself 
to the mass of the Democratic party that in 
1892 his nomination seemed to be inevitable. 
There was, however, a strong and influential ele- 
ment opposed to his nomination, and for a time 
it seemed as though the convention which as- 
sembled in Chicago that year would be rent 
into irreconcilable factions. But the necessity 
of Cleveland's nomination gradually appeared 
to sink into the minds of even his bitterest op- 
ponents, and he was chosen standard-bearer for 
a third time without serious opposition. The 
Republicans that year nominated General Har- 
rison, and the scenes of 1888, when these two 
eminent men had been pitted against each other, 
were repeated. In 1892, as in 1888, the principal 



3i4 STATESMEN 

issue was framed upon economic questions, and 
while the Republicans adhered to a strict pro- 
tective tariff as the fundamental principle of their 
political faith, the Democrats put forward the 
somewhat novel proposition that a tariff for pro- 
tection is unconstitutional and wrong. On this 
main issue the contest was fought out tc^ its con- 
clusion. Various subsidiary questions were in- 
troduced into the debate, but Cleveland's popu- 
larity solidified the rank and file, and all manner 
of dissensions being composed, the united party 
went to the polls that year and re-elected him b}' 
a larger majority than that which he had secured 
in 1884. He received 277 electoral votes ; Har- 
rison had 145, and Weaver, the candidate of the 
new party, the Populists, had 22 votes. Of the 
popular vote, Cleveland had 5,553,808 ; Harrison, 
5,i8o,gii ; Weaver, 1,035,572, and Wing, the nom- 
inee of the Socialists, 21,145. 

It cannot be claimed for Cleveland that he 
possesses brilliant or conspicuous statesman-like 
qualities. His popularity is chiefly due to the 
belief of the people in his stern integrity and in 
their admiration for the so-called Jacksonian 
qualities of firmness and devotion to ^hat he 
conceives to be the best interests of the Avhole 
country. All his public services have been 
characterized by a certain Spartan simplicity 
and absence of rhetorical parade which have 
evoked the admiration of the people. 

As an orator he is sensible, matter-of-fact, and 
direct, rather than eloquent. His voice is harsh, 
and at times somewhat shrill. His manner is 



GliOVFAl CLEVELAND 



;m5 



angular and not altogether graceful; but it is 
the matter of his speeches and public addresses, 
rather than their style, that commends him to the 
people and gives him the reputation of a busi- 
ness-like and" sensible statesman. In person he 
is large, florid, and impressive. His personal 
friendships are not many, but they are warm and 




" The Weeds," the Clevelands's Home at Holland Patent, N. Y. 

devoted, and his immediate personal following 
is knit to him by the strongest bonds ; through 
these he has always maintained a firm hold on 
the affections and esteem of the American people. 
The most conspicuous event of his second ad- 
ministration has been his convocation of Con- 
gress in special session in August, 1893, to 
consider the financial condition of the countr}^ 
which at the time of the meeting of Congress 



346 STATESMEN 

was one of great confusion and depression, 
almost amounting to panic. The message in 
which he directed the attention of Congress to 
existing difficulties was brief, pointed, and busi- 
ness-like, and commanded at once the approval 
of all patriotic citizens without regard to party 
affiliations. 

During his public life Cleveland has given cur- 
rency to many notable sayings that will always 
be identified with his name and services in the 
cause of good government. As a matter of 
record some of these are herewith appended : 

" Public officers are the servants and agents of 
the people to execute laws which the people 
have made, and within the limits of a constitu- 
tion which they have established." 

" Your eV'Cry voter, as surely as your chief 
magistrate, under the same high sanction, though 
in a different sphere, exercises a public trust." 

" A true American sentiment recognizes the 
dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in 
honest toil." 

" They have proved themselves offensive par- 
tisans and unscrupulous manipulators of local 
party management." 

" After an existence of ncarh" twenty years 
of almost innocuous desuetude these laws are 
brought forth," 

" It is a condition wliich confronts us, not a 
theory." 

" Party honest}' is party expediency." 

" Communism is a hateful thing and a menace 
to peace and organized government. But the 



GROVE R CLEVELAND 347 

communism of combined wealth and capital, the 
outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfish- 
ness which assiduously undermines the justice 
and integrity of free institutions, is not less 
dangerous than the communism of oppressed 
poverty and toil which, exasperated by injustice 
and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the 
citadel of misrule." 



